


Leo and Aurora

by PeregrineBones



Category: Carry On - Rainbow Rowell, Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Adopted Children, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Childhood, F/M, Family, Gay parenting, Long-Term Relationship(s), Love, M/M, Vampires, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-15
Updated: 2016-11-08
Packaged: 2018-08-15 00:48:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 46,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8035786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PeregrineBones/pseuds/PeregrineBones
Summary: An AU in which Remus and Sirius and survive the war. They are friends with Simon and Baz. There are lots of adopted werewolf and vampire children. Severus Snape is hanging around, as well. Lots of fluff and romance.





	1. The Man Called Moony

**Author's Note:**

> The war has ended and Voldemort is defeated. Harry is in Auror School. Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Severus Snape have all survived the war. Sirius is still in hiding, still wanted by the ministry. He is pursuing legal action to clear his name. He is living with Remus and Remus' elderly father, Romulus in their family home in Wales. Sirius and Remus have adopted two children, a boy, Leo, who was bitten by a were wolf when he was a baby, and a girl, Aurora who was bitten by a vampire at age five and rejected by her parents. They are friends with Simon and Baz (from Carry On by Rainbow Rowell. If you haven't read it you should). Remus became friends with Simon and Baz in the years that Sirius was in Azkaban. Simon and Baz belong to the mage world, which coexists along with the wizarding world after a split that occurred centuries ago. Simon and Baz have three adopted children of their own, all vampires. Severus Snape is hanging around. He is friends with Remus and they are fiercely loyal to each other. Severus is struggling to figure out his life now that he is no longer a death eater/secret agent for the Order of the Phoenix. The story opens on the morning that Aurora comes to live with Remus and Sirius.

Aurora woke in a strange room, in a strange bed. The walls were blue with clouds painted on them, like the sky. There was a strange little boy sitting up in a bed across the room. He had dark hair that tumbled around his face in soft curls. His cheeks were a deep rosy red and his eyes were very dark, almost black. He was glaring at her fiercely.

“That’s Harry’s bed,” he said in a high childish voice as Aurora opened her eyes.

She looked back at him narrowly. “Who’s Harry?” she asked.

“He’s my brother and he doesn’t like girls sleeping in his bed,” came the reply.

“The man called Moony said I could sleep here,” said Aurora defensively.

“He’s my _dad_ ,” said the little boy territorially. Aurora was pretty sure the man called Moony had said he would be her dad from now on, or at least it had been implied, but in the face of this strange boy’s fierce possessiveness she held her own counsel and ducked her head back under the covers until the man called Moony came in to get them up.

**********

The man called Moony was very kind. That was what Aurora thought when he poked his head into the sunny room a few minutes later.

“Good morning Leo, Good morning Aurora. Ooff!” he said as the boy hurtled out of his bed and into Moony’s arms. “She slept in Harry’s bed!” Leo said in a loud and complaining voice. “He won’t like that!”

Moony picked up the boy called Leo and kissed him on the forehead. Leo squirmed. Moony sat down on Leo’s bed with the little boy on his lap.

“She did,” Moony said. “I did ask him, you know.”

“You did?”

“Well, not last night, but I owled him first thing this morning.”

“What did he say?” Leo demanded.

“We’ll have to wait and see, won’t we. I asked him to supper tonight.”

“She can’t play with my trains.”

“All right.” said Moony. He gave Leo a narrow look but said nothing further to him. “ Would you like a bath before breakfast, Aurora?”

Aurora peered shyly up from the nest of blankets. “Yes,” she said.

“She can’t play with my dragons,” said Leo. He had dragons that swam in the bath and spat water at him.

“Not even one?” asked Moony.

Leo thought. “The purple one,” he conceded.

“Purple all right with you Aurora?” Moony asked. Aurora nodded solemnly. Moony set Leo down with another kiss to the top of his head and stood and extended a hand to Aurora, who slid out of bed and grasped it. She was wearing a borrowed nightdress that was too big on her. “Come along Aurora,” he said. “Let’s get you cleaned up. Pads is making eggy toast and there are strawberries.”

************

It was a house, Aurora observed, that was not set up for girls. The nursery was full of trains and blocks and a toy broom that could be ridden about a foot off the ground. All the stuffed toys were dragons or snakes or bats. The bed she had slept in - Harry’s bed - had light blue sheets and the comforter on Leo’s bed had a cartoon of Marvin the Mad Muggle. The towels all had Thomas the train on them, the boots by the door were bright red - another boy color Aurora thought disdainfully. Still Aurora liked it there. She had never cared much for girlish colors anyway. The promised eggy toast and strawberries appeared for breakfast, along with a choice of cocoa or tea (Aurora chose cocoa, of course) served by the other man who was called Pads. He had a big laugh that filled the room and eyes that crinkled when he smiled.

Leo spent the morning vigorously protecting his toys from Aurora until she took refuge in the study where yet another man lived. This one was old, like a grandfather in a story book, and he told her she could call him Taina, which was an old wizarding word for grandfather.

“Does that mean you are my grandfather now?” she asked, wide eyed. She was finding the relations in this house very confusing.

”I am Remus’ father,” he said. Remus was Moony’s real name. She had worked out that much on her own. “So if you will be coming to live with us, and I do believe that is the plan, then yes, I will be your grandfather.”

Aurora had never had a grandfather and she liked this one very much. His hands were dry and papery, his back was stooped but his voice was soft and gentle and his eyes were very kind like Moony’s. His room was full of interesting trinkets and the cat , who was called Indigo, was stretched in a patch of weak November sunshine on the floor. She liked to be petted behind the ears, Aurora discovered. She found plenty in this quaint room to entertain herself with. There were some picture books on a low shelf and some funny animals carved out of wood that Taina allowed her to play with. When she grew tired of these he brought out a brightly colored box that had a family of toy mice in it. They were dressed like acrobats in a circus. He touched them with his wand and they started to twirl and do flips and other tricks. He took some string and arranged a tightrope and some trapezes with his wand and Aurora was set for the rest of the morning.

*******  
“Our son is being a right little bastard,” Sirius announced, entering the bedroom and and flinging himself, belly down on the bed where Remus was sitting up, reading, glasses on his nose and quill in hand, taking notes from an article in Transfiguration Today.

“He’s just feeling territorial,” Remus replied. “He’ll settle down. Are they asleep?”

“Nearly. That Aurora’s a quiet little thing isn’t she?”

“A bit overwhelmed I expect. Do you see the look in her eyes. She’s taking it all in.”

“I don’t know Moony. I’ve been thinking we were a bit daft, thinking we could manage a girl.” Sirius ran his hand through his hair, making it stand up and givng him a slightly wild air.

Remus looked up from his reading. He took off the glasses and folded them and set them on the bedside table. “What do you mean?”

“I dunno. With Harry, with Leo, I know what they need, don’t I? I remember what it felt like to be three, to be fifteen. With Aurora….. I just can’t tell. She’s so quiet, and she looks so scared all the time….. And how are we going to know what to buy her? Knickers and things. We don’t know anything about girls, Moony.”

Remus looked down at Sirius fondly. He remembered the angry, defiant child he had been when they first met, at age eleven. How had that proud little boy somehow grown into this man that he had been in love with all his adult life? Who could still take his breath away with his charm, his intelligence, his passion. With his …..vitality. He reached out his hand to smooth down the roughed up hairs. “I think we’ll figure it out, Pads,” he said gently.

“We need pink things,” Sirius said glumly.

“Aurora’ll tell us what she needs. All we have to do is listen. And she doesn’t care for pink, she’s all ready told me.”

“Doesn’t care for pink?”

“Yes, that’s just how she put it. ‘I don’t care for pink, Mr Moony.’ She’s very polite.”

“A bit too polite.”

“She’s quite gifted magically,” said Remus. “I don’t know as you’ve noticed.”

“How do you mean?”

“Little things. Like she dropped the flannel in the bathtub this morning and levitated it out. I don’t know if she even noticed she did it, it seemed so natural. And this afternoon, in the garden, she was pressing two leaves together and having them fly off, like butterflies. And tonight, she didn’t like those beans we gave them? She vanished them off her plate when she thought we weren’t looking.”

“I always wished I could do that when I was a kid!”

“See, not so different,” said Remus. He scritched Sirius on the head, and felt him relax under his fingers. “We’ll figure it out, Pads. This is a big adjustment for all of us. If all goes well Aurora will realize that she can trust us and Leo will realize the world doesn’t revolve around him and maybe learn to share his toys. Which wouldn’t be the worst thing.”

“You’re not worried?”

“Oh Pads,” Moony sighed. “You know me. When am I not worried? I’m worried about everything. I’m worried about your hearing before the ministry coming up. I’m worried that we can’t afford another child. I’m worried about Dad and what we’re going to do when he gets too weak to get to the bathroom by himself. I’m worried about the leaky roof and the foundation on the west side of the house. I’m worried that Ginny isn’t good for Harry and that he’s jumping in too fast. I’m worried that some full moon night our beautiful son is going to turn into a wolf and I won’t be able to keep him safe. I’m worried that some day that beautiful little girl we just adopted is going to grow fangs and crave human blood. There’s plenty to worry about.” He put up his hands. “I’m not so worried we won’t know how to buy knickers or teach Leo to share. I think we can handle that much.”

Sirius looked up at him with an indulgent smile, “You worry too much, Moony,” he said fondly.

“I know.”

“Anything else?”

“I worry about Sev.”

“Snape? Really? Not worth your time, Moony. What’s your worry about him?”

“He’s lonely.”

“Because he’s a greasy git.”

Remus looked at Sirius and sighed in exasperation. They would never see eye to eye about Severus.

“Sometimes I think he doesn’t believe the war is really over,” Remus said. “That he’s free of Voldemort and can go live his own life now. He’s helping us a great deal, you know.”

“Don’t remind me. I can’t stand the thought of him digging around in my memories.” Sirius shuddered.

“His testimony is going to make your case much stronger.”

“I know. I still don’t like it, all right?”

“He’s wounded too, Pads. Why can’t you see that?”

Sirius just looked at him and shrugged. It was an old argument, and didn’t hold much charge. It was an area they had long ago agreed to disagree.

"Anything else you’re worried about?” he asked Remus at last.

“Oh, probably.”

“You need to get laid, Moony.”

“All right.”

And Sirius took Remus in his arms and kissed him, knocking his copy of Transfiguration Today to the floor. “Stop worrying so much,” Sirius whispered. And for a little while, neither of them worried about anything at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The dragon bath toys are borrowed from Fits and Starts by Bussaikko


	2. Two Dads

Over the next few days a number of things for girls appeared in the little house, all brought by the man called Moony who came and went, speaking of his adventures at work and the shops. He brought back some girl’s clothes for Aurora, knickers and vests and a night dress that fit, jeans with flowers embroidered on them and a soft warm jacket of light blue wool with buttons that were stars. By the end of the week there was a dollhouse, which Aurora promptly moved the acrobatic mouse family into, and a set of toy unicorns in bright colors that would run and do jumps over stacks of blocks. It was lucky about the unicorns because Leo liked them. He stood and watched in his imperious little way as Aurora set up obstacle courses of varying complexity for them. His black eyes were narrowed to slits and he had a scowl on his face. He went to Moony and complained, but Moony just ruffled his soft hair fondly and suggested that he trade. At last Leo could stand it no more and offered to let Aurora play with his trains if he could try the unicorns. It turned out there was a land where trains talked and unicorns frolicked and Aurora was good at making up adventures for all of them. If she concentrated really hard she could make the trains run down the track with a little puff of smoke. Leo decided to himself that maybe a sister was not such a bad thing after all. Things were closer to friendly between the two of them after that afternoon and unbeknownst to the children the adults, who had been watching them closely, breathed a sigh of relief.

She didn’t think about the bad man, the teeth and the blood, not very often. The ache in her neck was going away, and Moony put special soothing ointment on the bite marks, every morning and every night.

The nightmares started on the third night but then Moony was there, wrapping her in a blanket and holding her tight until she stopped screaming. And Pads was there too, building up the fire and making her warm milk to drink.

“I was bitten too,” said Moony when she had calmed down.

“You were?” Aurora was amazed by this information. “Did the bad man come to you, too?”

“No, love, not him,” Moony said brushing her hair out of her face, “It was a wolf.” And he showed her the bite mark on his leg. Aurora touched the old scar with fascination, then touched her own neck, where the ache still lingered.

“Aurora,” said Moony. “The bad man can’t come to you here. Pads and I are here, and we have our wands and we will always keep you safe.”

He carried her upstairs to the nursery where the night light, which had a lampshade with dragons, cast flickering shadows on the walls and Leo lay sleeping with his thumb in his mouth. He tucked her in bed and sat in the chair, her small hand clasped in his, until she fell asleep.

*********

 Aurora wondered where the mother was in this strange family. Moony went to work and brought things home, Pads cooked and cleaned and played with them. He made Leo take a nap after lunch in spite of his strenuous protestations and every afternoon before tea he became a dog and took them for a walk along the river in the chilly November air. That seemed strange to Aurora at first but she got used to it quickly. But he never went farther than the river, never went shopping or into town for any reason. When Aurora wondered about this aloud to Leo he told her that it was because he was wanted by the ministry.

“What does that mean?” she wanted to know.

“It means he can’t go to town.”

This was a frustratingly tight circle of reasoning but Leo knew no more than that. And when she asked him about mothers and fathers he was also not very helpful.

“Which is the mother, Moony or Pads?” she demanded of Leo.

“They’re both dads, stupid,” he told her.

“Pads stays home and cooks, which would make him the mum, but he likes quidditch and playing ball and Moony helps me with my paper dolls, and brushes the tangles out of my hair,” Aurora fretted. “It doesn’t make sense.”

“They’re both just dads,” Leo insisted, and Aurora had to leave it at that. But that afternoon, in the land of the unicorns and the talking trains, Sirius paused while peeling potatoes to listen as Percy the engine, who was wanted by the ministry, was sent to jail and his two dads, Gordon and Toby, had to get him out.

 

********

One day a strange man named Peregrine Bones came to the little house.He had black wiry hair, shot through with silver and round glasses made of gold wire. He had toffees in his pocket which he handed to the children absently, then went into the kitchen with Moony and Pads and had a serious discussion. His voice was reedy and intense and he talked with his hands a lot.

As he was gathering up all his papers to go he paused and said, “Try not to worry too much. I am quite optimistic. We’ve never had a better chance. Everything is changed with Shacklebolt in charge at the ministry. And we have his word that whatever happens, you won’t go back to Azkaban.”

“And we have a backup plan if that fails,” growled Sirius.

“Well, I’m not to know about that. Not technically legal is it? A good day to you all.” And he was gone.

After he left Moony went over to the calendar that hung on the wall and drew a circle around one of the squares in red ink with his wand. Pads looked at him as he did it. “Just after the full moon,” Pads remarked. The full moon in that calendar was marked with a blue circle.

“I know," said Moony and shrugged. “It’s a few days after. I think we’ll manage all right.”

Pads went over to the kitchen table and sat with his head in his hands. “I’m worried, Moony,” he said.

Moony went over to him and stood behind him and rubbed his shoulders.

“Of course you are,” he said. “We both are. But Peregrine seems confident, and he is supposed to be the best there is. Maybe we should get you a new suit,” he added thoughtfully, kneading at Pads’ neck.

“Do you really think we can trust him?” asked Pads.

“As much as we can trust anyone, yes I do.”

“You’re such a bloody optimist.”

“Not really, no,” said Moony. “But I’ve been righteously pissed off about this for years. I’m glad we’re finally moving forward.”

Pads gestured over to where Aurora and Leo stood watching them with wide eyes. “There’s a lot at stake,” he said.

“I know,” Moony replied.

“C’mere you two,” said Pads, opening his arms and when they ran to him he embraced them both in a tight hug.

********

That night there was a storm blowing in from the east and the wind whistled up from the field below the little house in great gusts and rattled the chimney and lashed rain against the windows. Taina said the east wind made his bones ache and had gone to bed early. They had supper in the parlor around the open fire, sausages cooked on sticks and potatoes roasted in the embers which Aurora thought was the best supper she had ever had. For dessert there was popcorn made over the fire in an old fashioned boxy popper that Pads carefully shook over the embers. Moony charmed apple slices onto sticks and they drizzled them with honey and roasted them until they turned golden and crunchy.

After they ate Pads took Leo in his lap and Moony put his arm around Aurora and they all sat together on the sofa in front of the fire. Moony and Pads tried to explain about the strange man and what it all meant.

“Well,” Moony started, “You know that Pads was in prison, right?”

“In prison?” said Aurora, eyes wide.

“That’s where he got his tattoos,” said Leo knowingly. Sirius had faded his prison tats using magic and lemon juice but they were still there, faint but visible, snakes and roses twining up both arms to his shoulders.

“Right,” said Moony. “But the fact is that he didn’t do what they said he did.”

“What was it?” Aurora asked. “That they said he did?”.

“It was murder,” said Moony, shifting a bit uncomfortably. Pads had gone very still, as if he really did not want to even talk about this. “But the point is, he didn’t do it. He was wrongly accused. Do you two know what wrongly accused means?”

“It means he didn’t do it!” Leo said. “ ‘Cause Peter Pettigrew did. But they don’t believe it. And that’s why Pads is wanted by the ministry.”

“That’s why he can’t go to town,” said Aurora, understanding dawning.

“That’s right,” said Moony slowly. “You know a lot. So that man who was here today….”

“Peregrine Bones!”

“He had toffee!”

“Right, him,” said Moony smiling. “He’s a lawyer. He’s trying to help get Pads’ name cleared. So he won’t have to hide any more. And the day I circled on the calendar, that’s when the hearing will be.”

“Will he win?“ asked Leo.

“I hope so.”

“What if he loses?”

“We’ll deal with that if it happens, but we’ll be all right,” said Moony. He looked grim but determined. “We’ll be together no matter what. We won’t let them take Sirius back to Azkaban.”

Aurora reached across Moony and found Padfoot’s hand and squeezed it. “I hope you don’t lose,” she said.

“Me too,” said Leo, never one to be left out of anything. He was mad that he hadn’t thought to say it first, Aurora could tell.

Moony put his arm around Padfoot and pulled him close. “We’re all here with you Pads,” he said and kissed his cheek.

“I know,” said Pads. “I couldn’t face it otherwise.”


	3. The Red Dragon

The full moon was coming and Leo and Aurora were going to stay with their uncles Simon and Baz. Aurora had only met them once before, on the night when she was bitten, the night that Moony and Pads had taken her home. It was another family with two dads, Leo explained. Aurora was starting to get used to that idea.

Moony sat at the table in the kitchen looking pale and drawn. He was sweating although the room was cold. Pads was hovering, trying to get Moony to eat something, but he shook his head at the suggestion of any and all food. Then there was yet another uncle, a solemn and dour man, whom Leo greeted with a hug and a cry of “Uncle Sev!” He was rewarded with a chocolate frog. There was a chocolate frog for Aurora, too, but the strange man looked her over with a severe frown, and said to her “So you’re the little girl then,” before he handed it to her. Although she liked the chocolate she wasn’t sure she liked the man. The card was Hildegarde the Horrible which Leo eyed jealously as he didn’t have that one yet. Uncle Sev handed Moony a smoky green potion which he drank down, wincing, and solemnly handed the flask back to Uncle Sev. Padfoot stood in the kitchen with his back against the counter and his arms folded and glared at Uncle Sev the whole time.

Uncle Sev glanced at the calendar with the red circle before he left.

“You and I should go over everything one more time before the hearing,” he said to Pads.

“All right,“ said Pads, arms still folded across his chest. His voice was tight and controlled, as if he would really like to have shouted it.

“Tuesday at 3:00 I think,” said Uncle Sev, glancing at the calendar again. “I’ll meet you here.”

“All right,” said Pads again.

“I’ll come early on the day of the hearing with the pensieve. We’ll need to store any memories we don’t want to share with the Wizengamot before we leave.”

“I have nothing to hide,” said Sirius roughly.

“Don’t be a complete idiot for once Black,” said Uncle Sev. His voice was like ice. “ If you reflect on it, I believe you can come up with quite a number of things in your past don’t want to share with the wider wizarding community.”

Moony held up his hands. “Don’t start, you two, not right before moonrise,” he said. “You can have it out on Tuesday. And not,” he added, “In front of the children.”

Uncle Sev turned to the kitchen fireplace and grabbed a pinch of floo powder from the mantel. “Have a gentle moon, Lupin,” he said and he was gone, Padfoot glowering at the empty space he left behind.

********

Padfoot brought them through to Simon and Baz’s house on the floo. He hugged them both and told them to be good and he would get them tomorrow after lunch. Baz and Simon had a large townhouse in the heart of London. The best part, Aurora thought was the playhouse that was built like a tree and had three levels and took up a whole corner of the lounge. The next best part was the food which was fish and chips that Simon brought back from the take away at the corner, still hot and crisp when he unpacked it. The boy, Ezra was Leo’s age and they quickly established a nation of cars and trains and planes in a corner of the lounge that no girl was welcome in. The girls were Anya and Embre and although they were both older than Aurora they embraced her as a cousin and braided her long blond hair in five different braids with beads in them and told her that because of her hair and her small size she could be the princess in their play.

Most of the night after the food part was taken up by planning and costuming the play which was going to be performed for Sirius when he arrived to pick them up. When bedtime came they were deeply engaged with the contents of the dress up bin which contained all manner of scraps of fabric and discarded bits of adult clothing and Simon had to use a stern father voice to get them all to go to bed.

In the morning Baz and Simon hurried off to work. Heather was there and she made oatmeal with apples grated in it which Aurora thought was brilliant and Leo would not eat. Heather made them do lessons after, even Aurora and Leo, but Aurora did not mind. She had been sitting with Taina every day and learning her letters and numbers and sounding out simple words, and she was proud to show off what she knew. Leo and Ezra mostly interrupted the lesson by making rude noises whenever they could and laughing hysterically but the girls just ignored them.

Aurora wondered if Heather was somehow the mother but she learned after asking a few questions that Heather was the nanny and had been taking care of them all since Anya was a little baby. Heather had used to live with them, Anya explained, but now she had a house and a husband and was expecting a baby of her own soon.

Pads showed up before lunch. He hugged Aurora and tossed Leo in the air which made him shriek with joy. He told them that Moony was fine, sleeping safe at home, and chatted amicably with Heather as he helped her make lunch. The children all made final preparations for the play. The boys had agreed to be in it if there could be a sword fight and there was a bit of a rush towards the end as they struggled with cardboard and glitter and aluminum foil from the kitchen to make the swords and shields. In the end Aurora held the cardboard swords in her hand and concentrated hard and was able to get the aluminum foil to stick properly.

The play went on immediately after lunch and was a great success with the audience of two. Pads said they must put it on again for Moony and Simon and Baz. When they got home Moony was still sleeping and Pads told them to be quiet and they could see him at supper. They had supper in Moony and Pads room all sitting together on the big old fashioned bed and dipping chunks of bread into butter bean soup. The bedroom had books on all four walls and a huge wooden wardrobe that was good for hiding in during games of hide and seek, and which Aurora thought was just like the one in the story that Moony had read to them. She was always hoping to get to Narnia through it, and she spent hours in there sometimes, thinking and dreaming and hoping.

Moony was pale and had a long angry looking scratch on his cheek but he was glad to see them and after they had finished eating they both snuggled in close to him where he sat propped up on pillows and he read them a story. Then Pads brought Moony his tea with firewhiskey in and shooed them off to bed, saying Moony needed to rest some more and he would be in soon to tuck them up.

In the nursery Pads kissed them goodnight and turned on the nightlight. After he had left and the dragon shadows were gently chasing each other around the walls of the room, Aurora asked Leo “Why does Moony get sick when the moon is full?” although she thought she knew the answer.

“He was bit by a wolf,” said Leo. “Same as me. When the moon is full he turns into one.”

Aurora had seen the scar on Leo’s shoulder. She touched the scar on her own neck, feeling it lightly with her fingers. How strange to be in a family of bitten people. Even Padfoot’s tattoos from prison were a kind of bite, she thought.

“Why doesn’t it happen to you?” she asked.

“It will when I’m older,” said Leo. “That’s the way it works. Just like when you are older you’ll be a vampire and go suck blood.”

Aurora knew this all ready, of course she did. She remembered the bad man, and the teeth, and she knew about vampires. But no one had said it to her yet, and hearing it stated by Leo in his high childish voice, so matter of factly, made her shiver. She pulled the comforter around herself and turned to the wall.

And then she remembered, the thing she had not let herself think about, the thing that hurt too much. Her mother, screaming and screaming, pushing her away. Her father, standing with tears running down his face, watching her as she walked down the dark road, away from them, into the night. She felt an ache in her chest like she wanted to cry, but somehow, she could not, and her eyes were dry.

She heard the rustle of sheets and Leo was padding across the floor, holding something in his hands.

“You can have my red dragon, just for tonight,” he offered, holding it out to her. He always slept with the green one.

“Okay,” she said and Leo handed her the stuffed toy. The dragon was made of soft red plush and had shiny silver wings and a bit of a smile on his face, Aurora thought. Holding onto it did make her feel better and soon she was asleep.


	4. Freedom

The day of the hearing the house filled up with uncles. It was a chilly November day and snow was starting to sift down from the grey sky and it might have felt like Christmas except it didn’t. Uncle Sev had handed Aurora sweets when he arrived, but for some reason she did not feel like eating them. Moony was pale and tight faced, Pads was uncharacteristically quiet and was pacing. They both had new robes and new suits underneath. They looked very handsome, Aurora thought, as if they were going to a wedding. Baz was fussing with Moony’s hair, and kept brushing lint off Padfoot’s robes with his wand. “A house full of gay men,” he complained. “How come I am the only one here with any fashion sense.”

“I am not gay,” said Uncle Sev in a tight voice from where he was messing around with the pensieve in a corner of the kitchen, pulling grey strands of memory from the side of his head and placing them carefully in the stone basin.

“At this point, my dear Severus, you qualify as an honorary queer,” said Baz, which made Moony laugh out loud and uncle Sev’s lip curl up in a sneer.

“Come here, Black,” Uncle Sev said imperiously, and he made Pads put some of his memories in the pensieve as well.

“I don’t like our memories mixing up together in there,” said Pads crossly.

“Nor do I,” said Uncle Sev.

Harry was there as well, the brother that Aurora had only met a few times and whose bed she was sleeping in. He seemed more like an uncle than a brother, though. He was all grown up and studying in London to be an auror. The scar on his forehead was kind of like a bite, Aurora thought, so she could accept him as a member of the family.

“Crowley,” Baz said as he tried to get Harry’s hair to stay flat with his wand.

“Lost cause, mate,” Harry told him with a grin.

“Just like James,” Sirius said, and he smiled fondly at Harry.

“Let’s get the portkey done,” said Moony and he took down an old iron key and held it out. The group of men gathered together in a tight circle, hands on each others shoulders. _“Portus_ ,” said Moony, touching the key with his wand, and Simon’s magic shimmered through the room accompanied by the smell of smoke. Moony wrapped the key in a handkerchief and touched the package with his wand and it became invisible. He handed the invisible key to Pads and kissed him on the lips. Pads put the key in his pocket.

Leo and Aurora were to stay home with Taina. Before Moony left through the floo he knelt and put an arm around each of them. He had a very solemn expression on his face. “Listen, you two," he said. “We have every reason to believe things will go well today, but there is a chance that they won’t. If the verdict goes against Pads we have a backup plan. That portkey will take him to a safe place, and I can meet him there. But if that happens, we may not be able to come fetch you for a few days. Don’t worry, I will come for you, or I will send Harry. You are to wait at Baz and Simon’s until then. I will send word to Taina and he will bring you there. Do you understand?”

Aurora and Leo nodded solemnly.

“Be brave children, and don’t be afraid. Pads and I love you very much and we will all be together again soon. I promise.” And he kissed them each on the forehead.

Taina came and grabbed Pads by the shoulders and hugged him. Then he put his hands on the top of Padfoot’s head He said some strange words in Welsh, and Aurora felt the tingle of magic. “Merlin be with you, today!” he said, his voice quavering, “Show them the truth. I love you like a son. Come back to us safe!”

Then they were all leaving, one by one through the floo, grabbing the green powder off the bowl on the mantel and shouting “Ministry of Magic.” When they had all gone through the house was very quiet.

Aurora put on the blue coat with the star buttons and went out into the garden. It was cold and quiet and the wet snow falling down on the dead leaves made a shushing sound. Her feet left wet footprints in the thin layer of snow.

She wandered down the garden to where the apple trees grew by the stone wall. The wind made an eerie whistling sound in the gaps between the stones. She picked up an apple leaf that had fallen to the ground. It was brown and leathery. She rolled it up and slipped the stem under itself, making a tight little roll. “It looks almost like a person,” she thought. She cupped it in her hands and concentrated hard. When she opened her hands a tiny man lay in her palm, wrapped in a crude leaf robe with fat little arms and legs that waved around ineffectually and a silly grin on his face. By the time she was too cold to stay out in the garden any more and had to go back in she had a collection of ten of the tiny leaf men.

Leo took one look at her creations and declared that they were not welcome in the land of talking trains and unicorns. But in the end they found a role for them, fetching and carrying for the other creatures and they were quite funny, running around on their short little legs and waving their stumpy arms about.

Lunch was marmite sandwiches and then Taina went to lie down. The afternoon stretched before them, grey and lonely. Snow was starting to accumulate and Aurora thought she had never heard anything so quiet as that little house, waiting in the snow. They ended up in the wardrobe in Moony and Padfoot’s room with the red dragon and the green dragon, playing a game where the dads had gone to a wedding and the children had been sent to Narnia to be minded by the talking beavers. At last they fell asleep together, in the warm darkness that smelled like their parents, each clutching a plush dragon.

They were awakened hours later by the sound of the door opening and Moony and Pads knocking snow off their boots in the front hall. They heard Padfoot shouting their names and they came running down the stairs to find him grinning from ear to ear. And then it did feel like Christmas, and Leo and Aurora were tossed in the air by Padfoot and enclosed in a tight hug by Moony, and they were smiling and explaining that Padfoot’s case had been heard in detail, that the warrant for his arrest had been lifted after all these years, that the committee was going to meet to decide whether to drop the charges and if all went well they would get a notice soon and Pads would be completely free, able to go wherever he wanted, his name cleared. Taina came unsteadily out of his room smiling and clapping them both on the back.

And then the little house filled up with people again only this time they were happy. Simon and Baz returned with their three children and two huge bags from the take away filled with curry and samosas. Harry showed up with a whole group of his friends and two bottles of firewhiskey. The friends all called Moony Professor Lupin and the girls hugged Padfoot as if they had known him a long time and cried. Harry introduced Aurora to them as “My new little sister,” and ruffled her hair. A lady called Andromeda showed up with a huge trifle in a glass bowl and told Aurora that she was Sirius’ cousin and she might as well start calling her auntie. Uncle Sev was there, looking as severe as ever. He handed the children fizzing whizbees without a smile or a word, then sat at the kitchen table drinking whiskey with a group of other grown-ups that Aurora did not know. Moony’s face was alight with a kind of fierce joy that Aurora had never seen on it. Pads kept getting embraced and congratulated by everyone and his voice was loud and happy and his big laugh boomed out and filled the room.

The children were all running about, chasing each other in and around the adults' legs, too excited to settle down to anything until they were sent out to play in the snow. It was still falling, in white perfect crystals and the sky had that strange light it gets when there is snow in the air, making it was easy to see even though it was dark. It had been falling all day and it was deep enough to make snowmen and forts. Aurora had on her blue jacket and her trainers because she had no boots and some mittens of Moony’s that were a mile too big on her but she wasn’t cold. Then Harry and his friends came out and they all had a massive snowball fight.

When they got back inside music was playing, loud and bright and people were dancing and someone was making popcorn over the fire. The woman who had told Aurora to call her Auntie was making cocoa in a cauldron on the kitchen table with a blue flame underneath. Aurora felt tired of the noise and all the people and went upstairs to find Padfoot standing at the window of the nursery looking out into the snowy garden. Aurora went over to him and he picked her up and held her tight.

“Hullo, Love,” he said. "Feeling tired?”

“Yes.”

“Me too,” he sighed. “It’s been a long day.”  
‘  
New snow was falling over the remains of their forts and half finished snowmen and everything looked very peaceful outside.

“Are you really not going away?” asked Aurora.

“Worried, were you?”

Aurora nodded. Pads looked at her and smiled. “No,” he said. “I am staying right here with you and Moony and Leo. I can’t believe it. I can’t believe it’s finally over. I’m going to be free,” he said in wonder.

“Can you go out now?” she asked. “Can you go out past the garden and to the shops and things?”

“Not quite yet, but soon, I hope. They have to review everything, and I need one more piece of paper before I am truly free. But they told us it looked really good.”

“Why are you two Dads?” Aurora asked.

“That bothering you too?” Aurora nodded. “You have a lot on your mind, little one.” He carried her over to her bed and sat down on top of the wet coats and cloaks that were piled there and held her in his lap.

“Moony and I just love each other,” he said, slowly as if he were weighing his words carefully. “We’ve loved each other since we were teenagers, younger than Harry is now. That’s the way we’ve always been. And then I went to prison and we were separated for many years. But eventually I escaped and after all that we found we loved each other still. And we wanted a family. But…..” here he paused and looked at her. “You know two men can’t have a baby?”

Aurora was a little vague on this point but she nodded solemnly. “You need a mum to have a baby.”

“Yes, and a Dad too,” Sirius said, smiling at her. “But we’ll talk about all that another time. The point is we wanted a family. And then there was Leo who needed a family and then there was you. And here we are. We have what we’ve always wanted. We have each other and we have you and Leo and we’ve never been happier.” He paused. “Do you mind terribly?”

“What?’

Padfoot spread his hands. “Two dads. No mum. We’re not a normal family.”

“No,” said Aurora decisively. “I like it.”

“Good,” he said. “Because we like you.” He kissed her on the nose, then rubbed his eyes and yawned.

“If you like, I can go downstairs and tell them you’re tired,” Aurora said. “If you want to go to bed.”

“I like sitting here like this and talking,” said Padfoot. “But I don’t think I can go back down there.”

“You should brush your teeth,” said Aurora. “I can tuck you in.”

“All right,” said Padfoot and that is what he did. He brushed his teeth while Aurora silently watched and he got into bed with a great sigh of contentment and Aurora kissed him solemnly on the cheek and turned out the lamp.

“You need a night light," she said.

“It’s all right, little one” he answered sleepily. “I’m a grown-up. I’m not afraid of the dark. Not really.”

As she was passing the nursery to go back downstairs she noticed a dark figure in her room and Uncle Sev was there picking through the snow soaked clothing, moving wet garments aside with his wand. He found his cloak and started to dry it, hot air blowing out from his wand. Aurora entered the room and stared at him. He looked up.

“Oh,” he said. “It’s you.”

He reached in his pocket and pulled out a chocolate frog. Wordlessly he unwrapped it and cut it into two neat halves with his wand. He handed one piece to Aurora and they both stood there, quietly eating the chocolate.

“You can have the card,” he said at last. Aurora took it from him and glanced at it. Walter the Weird.

“I don’t have that one yet,” she said.

“Good,“ he said, then looked at her sharply. “You getting on all right here?“ he asked.

“Yes,” said Aurora solemnly. “Why do you hate Pads?"

Uncle Sev looked at her a long moment. “I don’t hate him,“ he said at last. “Not anymore. I used to. Now I just…. Dislike him. There’s a difference.”

“Why did you help him today?” Aurora asked.

“For Lupin,” Uncle Sev replied at once. “Lupin is my friend. I would do anything to help him. And he loves Sirius, you know.” Aurora nodded.

“You are lucky to have them,” he said. “They are fools, the two of them, but they are headstrong and brave and they will fight to see that you have a place in the world.”

Aurora nodded again. “Do you like children?” she asked.

“Yes,” he answered. “When they are polite and well behaved.” He put on his cloak.

“Thank you for the chocolate,” she said. “And the card.”

“You’re welcome,” he said and shook her hand as if she were a grown up. “Be a good little girl,” he said, “and all will be well.” And he was gone with a swish of black fabric, his feet moving noiselessly on the stairs.

********

Aurora met Moony on the stairs as she was going down and he was coming up. He looked worried. “Oh, there you are,” he said distractedly. “Have you seen Pads?”

“He was tired,” Aurora explained. “I made him brush his teeth and get in bed.”

“Did you now? Aren’t you clever!”

“I was coming to tell you,” she said. “Uncle Sev left,” she added.

“Well, he doesn’t like parties much. I’ll just go check on Pads, shall I? You head downstairs. They’ll all be leaving soon,” He kissed Aurora on the top of the head and patted her back lightly as she descended the steps.

********

Remus opened the door to the darkened bedroom slowly. “Sirius?” he said, “Are you asleep?” There was a little bit of light coming in the windows, reflected from the snowy night. Sirius sat up in bed and stared at him owlishly.

“Moony?” he said. “C’mere”

Remus went over and sat on the bed and Sirius reached around the back of his neck and pulled him over in a kiss. After a moment, Remus broke free. “Pads,” he whispered, “Stop. We’ve a house full of people.”

“I haven’t even kissed you properly yet,” Sirius objected.

“I know ,” said Remus. They sat there, foreheads touching, not really wanting to let go.

“Hiya Moony.”

“Hi.”

“We did it!”

“I know!”

Remus kissed him then, a longish kiss, lingering and soft, then pulled back. He stood and touched his lips chastely to Sirius’ forehead. ”You go on and take a nap,” he said. “I’ll clear the house out and get the children to bed. Then we can celebrate properly. All right?”

“All right Moony. Don’t be too long.” And Sirius settled back to sleep again as Remus slipped away.

**********

Late that night Severus Snape sat in solitude with a single lit candle. Over the years he had developed many techniques to empty his mind and this was one of them. His skill and discipline in this area were unparalleled. He know of no other living human who had the power to empty their mind completely, to become one with the candle flame, and thus hide their true self and intentions. Well, for him it had not been optional. For him it had been a matter of life and death. He had worked for years against the most powerful dark wizard of his age, he had insinuated himself into his inner circle, then become his most trusted advisor. Voldemort was the most gifted Legilimens the world had ever known.  He routinely read the mind of everyone he came in contact with. His technique was so subtle most people he encountered had never realized that their minds had been violated. He used the information he gathered to manipulate and torture in uniquely cruel ways. Outwitting that Legilimency had taken a complex collection of spells, mysticism and sheer human tenacity. Severus had that tenacity, and his friend Remus Lupin had helped him figure out the rest.

In the end, Voldemort had never discovered that he had been betrayed by his closest advisor. But that had made no difference. He had attempted to kill Severus anyway, over a miscalculated theory of wands and power, and had very nearly succeeded in doing so. But Severus had survived, and Voldemort had been destroyed. For the first time in his adult life, Severus was out of danger. He had spent his youth in the thrall of an evil, twisted sadist, and now he was free. It had turned out to be a difficult adjustment. He had no idea how to pick up the shattered pieces of his life and start over again.

Tonight he was having trouble emptying his mind He kept seeing little Aurora Lupin-Black standing there with her wide eyes, her fairy princess blond hair and the red fang marks which were still healing on her neck. Her innocent questions and the trusting way she shook his hand. Lupin and Black had been fools to take her in, of course. He had recognized that right away, and yet, he was strangely taken with the child.

When Leo had been a baby, Lupin had thrust him upon Severus, saying things like “Just hold him would you, while I take a shower,” or “Give him his bottle while I hang the wash.” Holding that little baby, feeding him while he joyously waved his fists, having him fall asleep in his arms had gradually affected Severus. Leo had insinuated himself into Severus’ heart. He no longer bothered to fight his affection for the imperious little boy with the dark eyes, and resorted to the most basic kind of bribery to win his love. Well, now there was another one. Damn.

He never would have expected all this … domesticity from Lupin. The Remus Lupin he had befriended years ago had been dark, haunted, almost predatory, cruising the bars of London, never settling down to any one thing or one person for long. He had been reckless, fearless in the face of danger, a man with nothing to lose. Of course he had been waiting for Black, all those long years, and when Black had returned to him everything had changed.

Severus was haunted by nightmares and lately they seemed to be getting worse. He would be chasing Harry through a field, and he would turn into a dragon Severus had to slay. Albus Dumbledore would be falling from the tower, and Severus would run downstairs to find his mother holding the broken body, singing a song he could not remember when he awoke, his face wet with tears. Albus’ face would hang in the sky, then change to Voldemort’s, he would hear that cold  laugh, a green light would flash and Severus would wake drenched in sweat. Or Lily would turn to him, her green eyes blazing, and kiss him, and he would wake with a yearning so deep he thought he could not bear it.                                                                                                      

It was no good. Severus blew the candle out.He could not empty his mind tonight. He went to bed in the dark but it was a long time before he fell asleep.


	5. Christmas

Christmas was coming in earnest now to the little house in Wales and preparations were afoot. The first snowfall had been followed by dreary days of rain and the garden was brown and dead but inside the lamps burned bright, the peat fire glowed and smells of good thing to eat wafted from the kitchen. Small important things were hidden away in secret places. Moony brought home silver and gold paper and showed the children how to cut out paper chains of stars and trees and people holding hands. Taina knew how to knit and he was helping Aurora knit a scarf for Moony from some red wool he had. It was a bit uneven and there were quite a few dropped stitches, but Aurora worked on it faithfully every morning in Taina’s room after breakfast, the tip of her tongue held between her teeth in concentration.

Aurora was worried because she did not have a gift for Padfoot. She thought that Taina would be happy with fruitcake and Harry would be happy with fudge. Pads had agreed to help her make these. Leo was convinced that Moony and Pads wanted necklaces strung with beads and he spent a lot of time with the tin of beads in Taina’s room, choosing color schemes and switching them out, but Aurora wanted something more special for Pads. At last she shared her problem with Harry who came to dinner a week before Christmas and he offered to lend her money and take her Christmas shopping in Hogsmeade.

Leo pouted on the day that Harry came to fetch Aurora and seemed to be working himself up to a proper tantrum until Harry promised to take him to the next Hogwarts Quidditch match. “Up Gryffindor!” Leo said and seemed pacified. Hogsmead was like a village in a story book, all snowy rooftops and twinkling lights, the storefronts glowing with warm, inviting colors. It turned out that one of the girls who had been to the house the night of the party was Harry's girlfriend, called Ginny, and Aurora got to walk between the two of them, one mittened hand clasped by each. She had five galleons in her pocket that Harry had given her, (“It’s a loan,” he had said solemnly as he handed it to her. “You can pay me back when you get rich.”) They went to Honeydukes first where Aurora was rendered speechless by the amazing array of good smells and colors, the chocolates and toffees glistening in their cases, the pepper imps jumping around in a large jar, the fizzing whizbees, gently rising and falling in a large glass display by the window. It was too much to choose and Harry bought a bag of assorted sweets for her to share with Leo when she got home.

They went to Madame Marilyn's Magical Variety Store where she found a cap that said Gryffindor with fur inside and earflaps. She thought Padfoot would like it as`he liked Gryffindor and the hat would be good when he got his paper and could finally walk to the village. Harry smiled when he saw her choice and said it was perfect for Sirius, and had the shop girl wrap it for them in Christmassy paper with a bow. She had enough sickles left over to buy a fake poo that made a horrible squelching sound when you stepped on it which she knew Leo would just love. Harry and Ginny took her to the Three Broomsticks for lunch where the owner, called Madame Rosmerta, greeted Harry and Ginny like old friends and made a big fuss over Aurora, who Harry explained was a cousin of Ginny’s. Aurora didn’t understand why he had to lie about that, but she was too happy to let it bother her. 

At home, sitting by the fire with Leo and sharing her bag of candy, her gifts safely hidden under her bed, she decided that it had been the best day of her life so far.

********

Padfoot was working on building a new room in the attic so Harry would have a bed when he came home for Christmas. He had a magical hammer and saw to help him but he still seemed to hit his thumb a lot , which caused him to swear the most wicked swears Aurora had ever heard, and sent her and Leo into fits of giggles. “Fuck a nine toed troll!” he’d yell. “Merlin’s hairy arse!” “Godric’s balls!” When Moony overheard him he got mad and told him to clean up his mouth or he’d clean it for him, but Pads still swore whenever Moony wasn’t around.

Aurora and Leo were getting new beds as well, four posters, hung with curtains so they could each have some privacy if they wanted, Moony explained. They could choose what color they wanted the curtains to be. Leo chose red for Gryffindor and Aurora chose sky blue. Moony brought home some stars from the book shop where he worked that glowed in the dark and together they hung them from the ceiling above her bed. When it was done Aurora thought she had never seen anything so beautiful, and she decided that night, when the curtains were closed and she was lying there in that magical starry world with the red dragon in her arms that the bad man could not find her in there. The nightmares were a lot less frequent after that.

They cut a tree in the woods behind the house and decorated it with strings of popcorn and the paper chains they had made. Moony went up in the attic and found a box with glass balls in beautiful colors, and tinsel and candles in silver holders that clipped onto the tree. They lit the candles for Christmas Eve and sat around the fire singing old rounds in Welsh that Taina taught them. Harry and Ginny were there holding hands in the firelight and they roasted sausages and potatoes and apples again. Pads had his arm around Moony who was curled against him like a cat, and his face glowed with happiness.

In the morning there were presents, a box of beautiful paints and a book of fairy stories, and a small family of toy hedgehogs to live with the enchanted mice in the doll’s house. And there were clothes; soft trackie bottoms in the beautiful jewel colors Aurora loved, and blue boots with stars to match her coat, bright yellow mittens, and a dress of deep blue velour with a belt that closed with a red rose, and white tights to wear with it. Leo got three new trains which he informed Aurora he was definitely not sharing, but as predicted, he loved his fake poo best of all and spent most of the morning setting it down in the most likely spots someone would step on it and laughing hysterically when they did.

Harry and Ginny left after breakfast to a place called the Burrow which was where Ginny’s parents and brothers lived. Aurora wondered vaguely if they were a family of squirrels, but didn’t have time to ask as they were getting ready to go to the house of the woman called Andromeda who had told Aurora to call her Auntie. Aurora wore her new dress. Auntie Andromeda had a husband and a grown up daughter called Tonks who could change her hair color at will and laughed a lot. Uncle Sev was there as well, glowering in a corner. He gave Leo and Aurora their best presents, though; an airplane that really flew for Leo and a toy circus tent for the mice to perform in for Aurora, complete with a tightrope and a trapeze and a hurdy gurdy that played a tinny tune when a crank was turned and a little monkey that danced around. There was goose for dinner and trifle for desert and the adults sat around drinking punch and talking until Leo toppled the Christmas tree when his plane flew into it. That made him cry and Moony said that they’d best get home and then Christmas was over.


	6. Goldstein and Smith's Purveyors of Fine Books

After Christmas life settled down into a quiet pattern in the little house in Wales. Some days Padfoot was happy and his big voice rang through the house, his eyes crinkled often at something or other one of the children said and he laughed easily. Those days he cooked good things to eat and there were big happy dinners around the small kitchen table when Moony came home from work. Other times he sat by the fire with his head in his hands, watching the flames, or became a dog after lunch and remained that way for the whole afternoon. Those days there were scrambled eggs or marmite sandwiches for supper and Moony read them a story afterwards, with Padfoot’s head on his knee, his big doggy eyes looking up mournfully, and they all went to bed early.

Moony told them not to worry about this, that Padfoot just got sad sometimes, and that being a dog helped him think things through. When Aurora asked what things he was sad about Moony looked up from his reading and took her in his lap.

“Well, you know how Pads was in jail?” he asked.

Aurora nodded.

“Well, that was a terrible time for him. And it was a very long time as well. He was in there for 12 years, you know. That’s more than twice your age.” Aurora could not imagine such a long time.

“And you didn’t get to see him in all those years?” she asked.

“No,” Moony answered. “Not once.”

“Did you miss him?”

“Yes, I did. Every day.”

“Poor Pads.”

“Indeed. And there are other things he is sad about as well. His brother died you know, and his Mum and Dad. And James who was Harry’s dad. He was Padfoot’s best friend and he still misses him, even though he died when Harry was a baby.”

“No wonder he wants to be a dog sometimes.”

“Yes, exactly,” Moony said. And he kissed Aurora on the top of her head, set her down and went back to his reading.

********  
The full moon came and went and Leo and Aurora once again spent the night at Simon and Baz’s with their cousins. Heather had found a great swath of shimmery green material at a Muggle second hand shop and the girls all set to it with enthusiasm to create a dragon costume that Leo and Ezra could stand underneath for their next play. There were a lot of silver stars and spikes to be attached and it was all quite complicated. Aurora said she was tired of being the princess so she got to be the scary ghost. Anya was tallest so she was the handsome prince with a dark past - Anya said the dark past was very important and kept changing the details of what dark events had actually happened to him. The others took her word about this, as she was the oldest and knew best about such things. Embre was stuck with the princess role, but she was a good sport about it and said she liked making the costumes better than the actual play anyway. She decided she was going to be a rainbow princess and was making a dress out of all different colors of fabric- Heather was helping her sew it. Aurora thought that Uncle Sev might agree to play the Evil Wizard King if they asked him nicely, and she and Anya composed a very polite letter explaining the situation and sent it off by owl.

The cold weather set in in earnest and the little house was enveloped in a soft blanket of snow. There was a cold snap so severe they didn’t go outside at all for three days. Moony came home one night with a pair of snow pants for Aurora. There was a snowsuit for Leo in bright blue with Spiderman decals on it that Leo refused to take off for the next three days. The sunny winter days set in and Leo and Aurora created a network of tunnels and forts in the deep snow of the back garden. Aurora could concentrate hard and get the snow to stay put in the places it didn’t naturally want to. Padfoot would turn into a dog and lead them out into the fields beyond the stone wall and chase and frolic with them in the snow, creating sprays of frosty white around him as he dove into the drifts, a big doggy grin on his face.

And one snowy night, Aurora and Leo were wakened by their parents who held them at the window. They looked down into the moonlit garden to see a unicorn standing, just beyond the stone wall. She was eating dead apples from the branches of the tree that hung over the wall. They watched her for a long time and when she turned to head out across the snowy field they saw a flash a gold and a tiny foal trotting docilely along behind her.

One sunny morning there was a bang on the door and Peregrine Bones was in their kitchen with a big smile on his face and a piece of paper in his hand that said that Sirius was free. Sirius took it from him and sat down at the kitchen table and stared at it as if he could not believe it was real. Aurora looked over at Peregrine Bones, uncertainly and when she looked back at Sirius he was crying silently, his shoulders shaking and tears running down his cheeks.

She and Leo ran to him then and hugged him and he laughed through his tears and told them not to worry, that they were tears of joy. He looked up at Peregrine and asked “What do I do now?”

“Well,” Peregrine Bones said in his high dry voice, “I suggest you go find Remus and give him a big kiss and take him out to dinner. But first….” he added. “There is a bit of paperwork I need you to see to.”

The paperwork, it turned out came in a small chest that Peregrine Bones had brought with him that Aurora had not noticed. There were scrolls and scrolls, a deed to a house called Grimmauld Place that Aurora had never heard of, another deed to a flat in London, a will, bank forms and adoption papers for Leo and herself.

“It’s an unusual adoption,” said Peregrine Bones as he rose to leave, the large stack of scrolls of parchment piled between himself and Padfoot. “It’s not just the circumstance of it being two men, but also the fact that Remus is a well known werewolf. Of course, the children are also unusual, so I expect it will go through eventually. You and Remus should look through all that tonight. I have reserved a room at Gringotts for 10 AM tomorrow with a notary. We can sign the papers then, and you’ll get the key to your vault and can review the contents.”

He put on his coat and paused at the door. “The ministry is issuing a press release about your pardon, you know. It will be in the paper tomorrow. Good day to you,” and he was gone with a tip of his hat.

********

Remus had worked at Goldstein and Smith’s Purveyors of Fine Books for almost five years. He had started at the front ringing up sales, but had been promoted several times, first to floor manager, then to buyer, then to his current position, which he liked the best, as manager of the used and rare books department. That position entitled him to a desk of his own, complete with a phone and a computer, situated right next to the staff coffee maker, which was really the heart and soul of the whole operation. It was a large rambling store, with oak shelves and soft lighting at the front, which gave it enough character to make it a bit of a tourist attraction and a haven for students. There was a large children’s section towards the back, a rambling used books department in the basement, and a second story balcony where the rare books and collectables were kept behind a locked iron grate. A few years ago they had knocked out a wall and opened a cafe in an adjoining storefront. His old friend Annie, who had started with him at the register, managed that department. She was in charge of scheduling events, and there was a regular calendar of book signings, poetry readings, and creative writing workshops. Annie still had purple hair and wore Doc Martens, and she was one of the few people at the store who knew about Remus’ family life.

Remus was on the phone when she appeared at his desk, a huge smile on her face. He looked up, a bit annoyed. He had two more calls to make and a meeting with collector at 3:00.

“Someone here to see you, Remus.”

“Who is it? “ he asked testily.

“Surprise,” she said, still grinning broadly. “But worth your while.”

She waited until his call was finished and led him through the maze of cartons and shelves that made up the non-public part of the operation, out through the children’s section to the front where Sirius stood by the register, backlit a bit in a shaft of winter sunshine, flanked by Aurora and Leo holding tightly to a hand on either side.

“Sirius,” Remus said. "What in Merlin’s name are you doing here?”

Sirius handed him the piece of paper, and stood quietly while he read it. When he had finished reading, Remus looked up at Sirius with an expression of pure joy. Wordlessly, he put his arms around Sirius’ neck and kissed him on the mouth. Sirius grabbed him by the hips and lifted him and spun him a half turn, and when he set him down they were both laughing and the assembled staff and customers who had been watching this little tableau in fascination broke out into applause.

Remus’ head was spinning and when Sirius set him down and he felt short of breath. He knelt and put a hand on each child’s shoulder, focussing on their innocent faces to steady himself. The thought flashed through his mind that how he rose to this particular situation would stay with them for the rest of their lives. And he realized in that moment that they were the only ones in the room that really mattered.

“Hullo, you two,” he said, with as much of a smile as he could manage. “Came to see me at work, did you?”

“Pads is free,” said Leo.

“We came to celebrate ,” said Aurora. She was wearing her blue velour dress and white tights.

He felt a light pressure on his shoulder “Good news, Remus?” said Annie behind him and he turned to her, still kneeling and said, “Yes, the best!” Annie turned to Sirius with her hand extended and said “You must be Remus’ partner. I’m Annie,” with such grace and ease that Remus was forever grateful. Sirius said something incomprehensible, that sounded like something between, "Good afternoon,” and “Pleased to meet you,” and Annie knelt down beside Remus to meet the children. “Hello, I’m Annie,” she said to them.

“This is Aurora and this is Leo,” said Remus and he was proud to hear them both say, “Pleased to meet you,” in their high childish voices.

Somehow, Annie led them through the next half hour as they made their way slowly through to the back of the store and Remus’ desk. Everyone wanted to meet them, and Remus started to think he might actually get used to the sound of his own voice saying, “This is my partner, Sirius,” and “These are my children.” He found he was smiling uncontrollably, the news gradually sinking in that it was over, really over. That Sirius was free. His pride in his little family grew as he introduced them again and again. His co-workers all seemed genuinely pleased. “Pleasure to meet you,” they said as they shook Sirius’ hand. “Where has Remus been hiding you?” By the time they made it to his desk in the back the spinning in his head was slowing down. He showed Leo how he could write his name on the computer and was just showing Aurora how she could make the letters of her name in different sizes when Annie appeared and said apologetically, “Mr Fell is here. Your 3:00?"

Remus looked over at Sirius and the children somewhat helplessly and Annie said, “Go on and meet with him, then. I’ll buy these three a cup of cocoa in the cafe. We’ll get acquainted.” She took Aurora’s hand. Aurora looked up at her with adoration in her eyes, and Sirius picked up Leo and followed along and they were gone. Remus grabbed the key to the rare books room from the hook where it hung by his desk and went upstairs to the second floor balcony to meet his client.

Mr Fell was a rare book enthusiast that Remus had known for years. They had had a brief affair long ago. He was older and a bit pouftie for Remus’ taste, not really his type, but he had met him during a particularly dark period and the the relationship had helped lift him up, somehow, and given him hope. He had always been been grateful to Mr. Fell for that. In recent years he had become a loyal customer who could always be counted on to purchase something. Remus knew his tastes and kept a lookout for volumes he would be interested in. He had been quite insistent on meeting today.

He had another man with him whom he introduced as Alex Crow, a tall angular man in an expensive suit who did not remove his dark glasses. Remus assumed he was a boyfriend - their interactions had the familiarity of long term lovers. But Remus felt a slight chill as he shook hands with Mr. Crow.

*********

It took a while for Remus to lay out and explain the books he had obtained that he thought might interest Mr. Fell, and at one point he had to leave to check a price on the computer.

“Sorry,” he said, removing his white gloves and laying them on the table. “I’ll just be a few moments.”

When he had gone, Mr. Fell stroked the back of Mr. Crow’s hand lightly. “A good day for my side,” he said.

“Yes,” responded Mr Crow, philosophically. “Well, we all must have our moments of triumph. It’s all for the sake of the balance, you know.”

“Yes,” agreed Mr. Fell. “The balance.” And he lifted the other man’s hand to his mouth and kissed it.

*********

Mr Fell bought three volumes at a very fair price and Remus was satisfied with the deal. After they departed he went looking for Sirius and found him in the children’s room , seated on a beanbag chair and flanked by Leo and Aurora. He was reading a large colorful book about Thomas the Train aloud. Ignatz, the bookstore’s resident black cat was purring on Aurora’s lap.

“Doing all right?” Remus asked.

Sirius grinned up at him. “Fine,” he said.

“Listen, if you don’t mind waiting a bit, I have a few calls to make.”

“Take your time,” said Sirius. “They’re fine here and I’m fine…” he gestured around the room with his hand, ”anywhere.”

********

By 4:30 they were out the door of the old bookshop and on the streets of London. Sirius took a deep breath and looked around.

“What do you want to do now, free man?” asked Remus with a grin.

“Ermm…...dunno,” said Sirius, “Walk around a bit? Clear my head?”

“That was a bit overwhelming.”

“I’ll say.”

They walked until they found a play park and sat together on a bench while Leo and Aurora climbed and slid and swung with a horde of Muggle children as the sun went down in a wintery sky. At last they walked over to Diagon Alley and found Harry in the Auror office to share the good news. Remus sent a text to Baz on the new mobile phone Baz insisted he carry, and an owl to Severus as well. They all went over to the Leaky Cauldron, where Tom, the bar man, greeted Sirius as a long lost son.

Tom put together a couple of tables in the back and they were joined by Simon and Baz and their children. Eventually Severus came through and took Sirius’ hand.

“I am truly glad about this,” he said a bit stiffly. “Congratulations on the outcome.”

“Thank you,” Sirius replied. “Thank you for everything you’ve done.”

“I did it for Lupin,” said Severus. “And…. and…. for justice.”

“Well thank you anyway,” said Sirius and he smiled.

Remus thought this simple interaction was the best thing that had happened all evening, and he relaxed a little, trying to savor the joy of this moment. More people kept coming through the floo and congratulating Sirius. Harry must have sent a few owls out as well, Remus thought, and soon it was like a reunion of the Order of the Phoenix, those who were left. Kingsley was there , and the Tonkses and even Minerva McGonagall stopped in briefly. So many Weasleys showed up that the room took on a faint reddish glow. There was a whole crowd of Harry’s friends, Ginny, Luna, Neville, Ron, even Draco Malfoy who had fought for their side in the end and was apparently dating Hermione Granger.

Some of the other patrons in the bar clearly recognized Sirius and stared at him with blank disbelief, but Remus did his best to ignore them. It was harder to ignore others who recognized Remus as a werewolf and made the old warding sign when they saw him, three fingers of the left hand laid across the right arm to form an upside down W. He tried to distract the children so they would not see. He knew they would soon have to enter the world and all its biases against them, but he hoped that they could remember this night as one of unadulterated happiness.

“Sirius worked here, you know, when he was young,” he said, turning away from a witch in deep crimson robes who was looking at them with a particularly hateful expression, her red fingernails flashing as she warded him.

“Best barman they ever had,” Sirius said. “Moony worked at Honeydukes, you know.”

“You did? Really?” asked Leo, wide eyed.

“Oh yes. During holidays while I was at school. I was saving for my own flat.”

“That’s when we started dating,” said Sirius. “Remember?”

“Was it dating? We never really went on dates.”

“What would you call it?” asked Sirius, glancing over at Leo and Aurora.

“Dating,” said Remus. “Yes, definitely.”

“I was just trying to get at Moony’s sweets,” said Sirius with a wicked grin.

“Not appropriate, Sirius,” said Remus, quickly. But he was too happy to really mind.

********

Aurora felt the happiness in the room as a palpable thing. Like a color she thought. We’re in some bubble of some beautiful, bright iridescent color that can’t be named. There was sheppard’s pie to eat, and chips with mayonnaise. Tom the bar man kept providing free drinks and in the end, Baz said he’d better take Aurora and Leo home and give their dads a night off. They were to ride home in Baz’s car, which Leo was dead excited about. He had never been inside a muggle car before.

“Can you fit them all?” asked Moony worriedly. He was leaning on Pads a little bit, and couldn’t seem to stop smiling.

“Yes, with a touch of magic. Go home, Moony, before you fall over,” Baz said.

Aurora tugged Uncle Sev’s sleeve to get his attention as he was getting ready to go.

“Uncle Sev?”

“Yes?”

“Can you be in our play? You never said.”

He looked down his long nose at her. There was not a trace of a smile on his face.

“All right,” he said at last.”If it doesn’t interfere with my schedule.”

“Thank you,” she said, remembering to be polite.

“You’re welcome,” he said and turned to go.

Aurora was very tired as she sat in the back of Baz and Simon’s car, the bright lights of a London night whirling all around her. All five children were crowded into the narrow back bench, where five seatbelts had magically appeared. She was wedged against Leo who had his nose pressed joyfully to the window.

“Uncle Sev said he’ll be in our play,” she said which for some reason Baz and Simon thought was very funny.

She rested her chin on the top of Leo’s head to see out better. He was bouncing with excitement.

“Did you pee before we left?” she whispered.

“Don’t talk about it,” he whispered back.

“Leo has to pee,” she announced.

“Oh dear,” said Baz. “Hang on Leo, we’re almost home.” And the car sped up.

 

*********

  
Remus and Sirius came home on the floo and staggered up to bed where they lay on their backs, holding hands and watching the ceiling spin. After a while the spinning slowed down and Sirius hitched over and started nuzzling Remus in the neck.

“Oi Sirius,” Remus moaned. “I think I’m too drunk to fuck.”

“Leave the fucking to me little Moony,” he said. “I’m on it.”

“Too drunk to properly enjoy it then.”

“Nah, I’ll get you going. I know what you like. I like you like this, all squishy and drunk. Besides,” he added, looking up at Remus with puppy dog eyes, “How can you deny me this?”

“Deny you what?”

“My first shag as a free man,” Sirius said. Remus laughed at that and didn’t object as Sirius undid his shirt buttons and kissed his way down Remus’ chest. When he got to Remus’ heart he laid an ear on his chest. He lay like that for a long time, listening to the gentle thud of the muscle beating, the soft swish and flow of blood.

“Nights in Azkaban, I used to lie there and try to imagine this sound.” he said at last.”The sound of your heart beat. Some nights I could, some nights I couldn’t.” He looked up at Remus and his eyes were infinite pools of grey. “I love you,” he said.

He started teasing Remus’ left nipple with his tongue, then after a while, bit it hard. “Oh,” whispered Remus, with a sharp intake of breath, “All right, then.”

 ********

Severus Snape sat with his candle, but his mind was racing. “Stupid," he chided himself. “You are an absolute fool!” He could think of no way out of it. He had agreed to be in the children’s play, and he would have to go through with it.


	7. The Evil Wizard King

The owl that came the next morning carried a newspaper with a picture of Pads plastered on the front page. The headline screamed “Sirius Black Exonerated. Full Pardon By The Wizengamot,” in large bold letters. There was a smaller picture of Uncle Sev that said “Legilimency by former Death Eater closes the case,” and another picture of a man Aurora did not know that said “Pettigrew, believed dead, blamed for Muggle killings from years ago.” Taina read the whole article to Leo and Aurora after Moony and Pads left to go to the bank to meet Peregrine Bones.

Pads came home from the bank with a sack of sweets for the children, saying Moony had gone on to the bookshop for a few hours. He went and sat in the parlor and looked at the fire. Aurora and Leo went and sat with him, and he put an arm around each and held them close. They watched the flames for a long time, and then Pads was a dog and they all went out and played in the bright cold snow.

In the end, their lives didn’t change that much. Occasionally Moony and Pads would take them to Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade, but people stared at Pads or made the strange, upside down W sign at Moony, and they gravitated more and more to the Muggle world, where nobody knew who they were and having a family with two dads was unusual but not unheard of. Pads would take them grocery shopping at Tesco, or he and Simon would get together on Simon’s day off and take the whole group of them sledding, or sometimes to a Muggle film. But they mostly stayed home, and as the days lengthened and the winter mellowed towards spring they were content together in their little house in Wales.

*********

The performance of the play was put off between one thing and another but finally an evening was found toward the end of February for the show. They all gathered at Simon and Baz’s house. Harry and Ginny came, and Uncle Sev was there of course, ready to play his part as the Evil Wizard King. In addition Baz’s Aunt Fiona was there and his sister Mordelia, who went to art school in London, and Heather and her husband. Taina was there as well, though he rarely left the house, but said he could not miss this, and came through the floo leaning heavily on Moony’s arm.

Heather came back to the kitchen to help them get ready while the adults gathered in the lounge. Aurora was in black weedy rags that hung off her and twirled when she spun around and disappeared into the mist with a ghostly wail at the end of the first act. The mist was provided by some very convenient powder that Ginny had picked up for them at Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes. Her face was painted white. Embre looked beautiful in her rainbow princess dress, and Heather spent a lot of time with her hair, brushing out her copper colored curls and twirling them with her fingers so they hung in long tresses over her shoulders. Anya sat at the table, chewing a quill and making last minute changes to her big speech where the handsome prince explains about his dark past. She was dressed in black trousers and a white shirt with puffy sleeves, her dark hair pulled back in a tight ponytail from her pale, heart shaped face. Leo and Ezra were zooming around the kitchen in excitement. They didn’t have much to do until the second half where the big dragon fight scene happened. Uncle Sev looked as he always did, in long black robes with a grimace on his face, perfect for his role.

The play was a big success, even though the dragon’s head fell off in the middle of the fight scene and Aurora had a coughing spell brought on by the mist powder that was so bad it made her throw up. She had to be carried outside in the cold air by Pads until she recovered while Moony vanished the pile of sick with his wand. Everyone agreed that Uncle Sev had done a fine job as the Evil Wizard King, but he just scowled at the praise. Afterwards there was lamb stew and bread and salad and the adults were all drinking red wine and chatting together, even Uncle Sev who was engaged in a serious conversation with Aunt Fiona about her work as a vampire hunter in Prague. The boys retreated to the top of the playhouse with a set of plastic dinosaurs that Ezra had got for Christmas and the girls all piled onto Baz and Simon’s bed with Mordelia who painted their nails sparkly black with a small bottle of polish she had in her bag. By the time it was time to go Taina was cranky and Leo was asleep on Padfoot’s shoulder. Before she left, Aurora went to Uncle Sev who was still talking to Aunt Fiona by the fire.

“Thank you Uncle Sev,” she said politely, holding out her hand, “For being in our play. You really made it better.”

He took her hand and shook it gravely. “You’re welcome. I actually enjoyed it, surprisingly.”

“You’re a good actor,” said Aurora.

“Well thank you,” he said. “I shall keep that in mind in my future endeavors.” For a second his features softened and she thought he might actually smile at her, but the moment passed and his face remained serious. “Would you like to learn to play chess?” he asked her. “I believe you are old enough.”

“Yes, please,” she said

“Very well. Be a good girl and we shall start next time I see you. Good night.”

“Good night, Uncle Sev," she said and went through the floo clutching tightly to Pads’ hand.

********

Severus Snape walked swiftly through the dark streets, his cloak pulled close around him against the deep cold of a late February night. It  whipped against his legs when caught by the gusty wind that was blowing. He turned up one familiar street and down another, then onto a narrow road labeled Amor Alley. Unlike the rest of the wizarding district, this little enclave was busy in spite of the late hour. Store fronts were lit alluringly, music could be heard coming from balconies, where whores stood, enticing customers, scantily dressed in spite of the cold. Men in dark cloaks moved silently on the street, or gathered in bars laughing too loudly. Severus looked neither to the right nor the left. He knew where he was going.

Madame Giselle greeted him as an old friend and asked after his health. “Who would you prefer tonight?” she asked , knowing he had his favorites. "I believe Amelia is free… or..” She paused, running a finger down a list of names on her desk.

“Someone new tonight, I think,” he said, cutting her off. “Someone….uncomplicated.”

“Of course,” she said smiling at him. He was one of her best customers. She consulted her list again. “Follow me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Amor Alley is borrowed from Stealing Harry by Copperbadge


	8. Date

The owls from Lupin started the next day. “Call her,” with a phone number underneath. “You can come to our house to use the phone if you like.” The next day he got another one “You should call her. I think she really likes you.” And the next day, “Don’t be an idiot. You should really call her.” And the next “Have you called her? She’s only in town for another week.”

In spite of Lupin’s stupid campaign Severus found himself thinking of Fiona quite a bit. Her dark hair, pulled back in a clasp at her neck, her eyes sparkling as she laughed, her hands moving slightly as she talked of her work with vampires in eastern europe, her voice low and intense. He found her ….intriguing. She was beautiful, for one thing, with large exotic grey eyes, a firm mouth, and a slender frame. She was also clearly intelligent. Talking to her that evening at Baz’s had been……. enjoyable. She had a quick acerbic wit and he had found himself laughing a few times through the course of the evening. He had felt relaxed in her company, almost at ease.

When the next owl came, the following evening he almost threw out the parchment it clutched before he read it. Then he noted the handwriting which was light and feminine, not Lupin’s usual familiar scrawl. He untied the scroll. “Dear Severus,” it read. “I hope I am not being too forward writing to you like this, but it seemed the best way to get in contact with you. Would you like to meet for a drink sometime? I am in London until Saturday next. Fiona Pitch.” He sat there staring at it. A few minutes later a second owl was rapping at his office window. “I’m not going to stop bugging you until you call her. You know I am right about this.”

Severus looked around the familiar walls of his office, the cool subterranean room where he had spent the majority of his adult life. It was as it always had been; shelves of potion ingredients and curios hung from the wall, the creepy things floating in dusty glass jars, there mostly for effect, that never failed to intimidate his recalcitrant students. He had sat in this seat and watched them eyeing the walls queasily for years. Minerva had insisted he return to Hogwarts as potion master after the war, and had insisted on making him deputy headmaster as well. He had objected, saying having Voldemort’s chief lieutenant in such a position of authority would besmirch the reputation of the school. Many of the students hated and feared him from those days. But Minerva was not to be swayed. “You were working for our side the whole time,” She had insisted. “The world knows that now, or it should. Besides there is no one else I would rather have as my second in command than you.”

Severus rose and sighed, with an air of being put upon to hide his nervousness, which he realized, was pretty stupid as there was no one in this room but him. He went to a cupboard and rifled around for his wizarding chess set, long unused. He fastened his cloak against the chill of the night, ascended the stairs to the great hall, and walked through the deserted school grounds, snow crunching under his feet, to the apparition point just outside the gates. A crescent moon was riding low in the the clear air, the western sky still glowing a faint orange from the sunset. With a pop he apparated to Wales.

********  
Uncle Sev entered the warm kitchen just as they were all sitting down to dinner, the scowl on his face so severe, Aurora knew at once he must be upset about something. He set a dusty looking box on the table and handed Moony a piece of paper, and Aurora was confused to see a wide grin spread across Moony’s face. Without a word he reached into his pocket, opened his mobile, dialed a number and handed it to Uncle Sev. He gently pushed him out into the living room and shut the door behind him. “If you say a word,” Moony said turning to Pads, “I will kill you.” Pads just winked conspiratorially and put a finger to his lips.

“Aurora, please set a place for Uncle Sev,” said Moony turning to her as he ladled up soup, and she obediently rose to get a bowl and a spoon, wondering what was going on.

Uncle Sev’s chess set had wizards for one side, trolls for the other. The wizards all looked like Uncle Sev, with billowing robes and long hair pulled back from their tiny faces, and they waved their wands and swore viciously. The trolls had clubs and grunted a lot and gave off a faint cheesy smell. Chess turned out to be a good deal harder than she had imagined, but Uncle Sev was patient with her and by the end of an hour she was starting to catch on. Leo watched jealously until Pads picked him up, and tickled him. “Come on Pup," he said, carrying him out into the parlor. “I’ll teach you how to play exploding snap.”

Uncle Sev had a brief conversation with Moony as he stood in the kitchen getting ready to leave. Aurora stood quietly just outside the door, straining to hear their low voices, trying to make herself very small so they wouldn’t notice her.

“All set then?” Moony asked lightly.

“We’re having a drink Thursday night,” Uncle Sev said gruffly.

"Good for you. Perhaps you should get a mobile.”

“I will not.”

“If you are going to be dating Fiona Pitch you’re going to need a phone.”

“It’s just one drink.”

“Mmm for now. You won’t let Baz take you shopping, I suppose.”

“No.”

“Too bad,” said Moony, eyeing his appearance critically. “Well, let me know if you change your mind.”

“Stop fussing, Lupin.”

“Can’t help it,” said Moony. “I’m thrilled, I am. She’s perfect for you.”

“Hmph. We’ll see.”

“Let me know if you need any, you know, advice.”

“What would you know about it?” said Uncle Sev sharply.

“I know plenty,” said Moony. “Love is love.”

“Good night, Lupin,” said Uncle Sev, and with a click of the door he was gone.

*********

Severus lasted until Wednesday afternoon when Remus found him browsing in the front section of Goldstein and Smith‘s Purveyor’s of Fine Books as he was wending his way toward the front door to go home. He looked like an anxious bat as he stood in the travel section, rifling through a book about Italy, his cloak hunched around his shoulders. “Could you call Baz?” he said to Remus by way of greeting.

“Want to do a little shopping, do you?” said Remus in a low voice.

“I’m afraid so,” said Severus with an air of someone succumbing to the inevitable.

An hour later they were in the men’s department of a higher end store than Remus had ever been in in his life and Baz was critically looking over racks of jeans and jumpers and choosing items for Severus to try on.

“You look very nice,” said Remus when at last Severus stood in front of the mirror wearing his final selections, black jeans, a black tee shirt and a soft blue jumper.

“Not bad,” said Baz, looking him over critically. Severus himself had an odd look on his face. He was looking himself up and down in the mirror, tilting up his chin a bit, like he hadn’t looked in a mirror in a long time.

“Shoes next," said Baz. “And a jacket of some kind. And then I must be getting home.”

*********

After all of Severus’ anxiety the actual date was fine. Fiona had suggested they meet at a Muggle bar which was softly lit, and filled with the murmur of many conversations. They sat at the bar and talked easily, ended up having two drinks and going for dinner and ordering a bottle of wine. The alcohol loosened him a bit and he found himself answering her questions about his life under the Dark Lord, admitting to the fear, the isolation, the loneliness. None of this was exactly a secret but he had never really talked about it with anyone, not even Remus. Fiona was a good listener, her questions asked in a light tone, not too probing, but allowing him to slowly open up. Her hair was smooth and sleek in the candlelight, her deep eyes intense. She was wearing earrings of a red stone that sparkled as she moved her head, giving her an elegant appearance.

At a pause in the conversation he looked down, suddenly embarrassed. “I’ve said too much,” he murmured. “I don’t usually….” he struggled for the right word, “......talk like this.”

She reached across the table, taking his hand in hers which was surprisingly small, the fingers tanned, reassuringly warm. He liked the feel of it.

“I’m honored, really,” she said, smiling up at him, “that you would trust me enough to tell me all this. It’s an unusual story. And I think you needed to talk about it.”

“I do feel …. lighter,” he said, and he allowed himself to smile back, briefly.

“What now, Severus? “ she asked, softly stroking his hand with her fingers.

“I honestly have no idea,” he said. “These last months have been strangely….. empty. A life without fear is not something I am used to.”

Out in the street a light rain was misting, the first rain of spring really, and it created an illusion of being hidden as he took her in his arms and kissed her. Once he started he did not want to stop. Her mouth was soft and yielding, her skin warm, her scent spicy and clean rather than sweet. He had not kissed a woman with passion in many years. When at last they broke apart he was breathless, dizzy almost, the world slightly askew. She stepped away from him, hailed a cab. “Call me,” she said, stepping in, “or send an owl,” she added grinning, and she was gone, the street shining in the rain as the cab pulled away.

He walked the rainy streets for an hour, until he felt calm enough to apparate back to Hogwarts. He walked the short distance to the castle, through the silent grounds. His footsteps echoed in the empty halls, darker than usual because of the rain. He was soaked to the skin. He returned to his solitary rooms, made tea, lit his candle and tried to empty his mind. The feel of her skin, her lips, was still with him.

“Bugger,” he thought as he got into bed at last. “Lupin is right. I will have to get a phone.”


	9. Worm Moon

It was the night of the full moon again, the Worm Moon as Sirius explained to Leo and Aurora, because it was when the worms started to move around under the earth. In Wales there was still snow on the ground, crusted over with a shiny layer of ice and piling up in dirty heaps around the door and the chicken house. Moony was pale and irritable, the sweat beading on his face. His eyes were bloodshot, and just as Uncle Sev arrived through the fireplace he turned and was sick in the kitchen sink.

Uncle Sev handed Moony the flask of pale green liquid and he grasped it with both hands, swallowed and winced. His face looked terrible, through the wisp of pearly steam shimmering up from the potion, and for a moment Aurora thought he was going to throw up again. Pads was beside him, holding onto his arm, so concerned he forgot to glower at Uncle Sev. Moony wiped his face and took another large swallow of the potion. “Better,” he breathed out. He sat down heavily in a kitchen chair. “It’s working,” he said, and tried to smile at Leo and Aurora, who were standing by the fire, waiting for Pads to take them through to Baz and Simon’s. Leo was clutching the green dragon and Aurora was clutching the red dragon. A worn knapsack of Moony’s stood on the floor between them, packed with their pajamas and toothbrushes.

“Lupin, can I use your mobile?” said Uncle Sev gruffly.

Moony smiled then, a true smile, and handed the phone to Uncle Sev. He took another swallow of potion. “You’ll have to dial it yourself this time,” he said. “I’ve got to get up to the shed. Hand it to Sirius when you’re done.” He stood and finished the potion in a long swallow, his adam’s apple moving, then shrugged into his jacket. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said to Leo and Aurora. “Be polite to Simon and Baz,” He bent and kissed them each swiftly and was gone, out the door and up the hill, walking over the crust of snow which flamed crimson around him in the light of the setting sun, his shadow moving long and slender ahead of him.

“Have a gentle moon, Lupin, “ said Uncle Sev softly, although Moony was all ready gone. He took the phone into the parlor and shut the door.

Pads stood at the window and watched him go. “Come on, you two,” he said gruffly, after a moment. He shouldered the knapsack, grabbed some floo powder from above the mantle, and took them each by a hand.

“Uncle Sev is calling Aunt Fiona,” Aurora whispered to Leo as they entered the fireplace.

“I know, stupid,” said Leo.

***********

The next play was going to be an ocean tale. Anya was going to be a girl who disguises herself as a boy and runs away to sea. Aurora and Embre were going to be mermaids, and Leo and Ezra were very pleased to hear that they were going to get to be swashbuckling pirates in the first half, and the scary sea monster in the second half. They would need Uncle Sev to play the pirate captain, and they thought Heather might play the Ocean Queen but when they asked her she said she thought she might be busy with her baby by the time the play was ready to go on, and maybe they should ask someone else. In fact, Heather’s stomach was sticking way out with the baby that was growing inside her and she let the children put their hands on it and feel the ghostlike movements of the baby as it kicked. In the end they decided to write to Aunt Fiona, and spent a large part of the evening composing a letter asking her to be the Ocean Queen.

That night, Leo and Ezra begged to be allowed to spend the night in sleeping bags on the top of the treehouse in the lounge, like hobos. Aurora got to sleep in Ezra’s bed in the nursery. Simon tucked them all in and turned on the nightlight, which had a pink shade and gave the whole room a soft rosy glow. After he left, the three girls all crawled into Anya’s bed, which was the biggest, and cuddled together under the covers in their nightgowns.

“Where did you get bit? Aurora asked Anya and Embre. She had been wondering about this for a while. They showed her the bite marks, Anya’s was on her neck, like Aurora’s and Embre’s was on her shoulder.

“Anya’s going to get her fangs first,” said Embre smugly, “Because she’s the oldest. You’ll be last,” she added to Aurora.

“Ezra’ll be last,” corrected Anya, “And Leo will be a wolf, like Moony.”

“Do you think it will hurt?” asked Aurora, worriedly, touching the scar at her neck.

“Baba says it doesn’t,” said Anya, confidently. Baba was what all the children called Baz.

“Have you ever seen them?” demanded Aurora, “His fangs?”

“No,” said Anya. “Have you ever seen Moony turned into a wolf?” Aurora shook her head no. She was pretty sure she didn’t want to see Moony like that.

“Baba’s going to take me out hunting with him when I’m old enough,” Anya said. “So I can see how it’s done. So I’m ready,” she added.

“Baba says we’re lucky,” added Embre. “He didn’t have anyone to show him. He worked it all out for himself.”

“He was all alone,” said Anya, “When he got his fangs.”

“How old was he?” asked Aurora.

“Fifteen,” said Anya. “But he says it happens younger for girls. He’s going to show you too, you know,” she added. “So you’ll know what to do.”

“Good,” said Aurora. She hardly ever thought of the bad man anymore. She hugged the red dragon close to her and decided that if Anya and Embre had to get their fangs first, she didn’t have to worry about it for a very long time. And if Baz would be with her when the time came, she figured she would probably be fine.


	10. Crow

As spring came on in earnest, Moony started to roam the hills and forests of his childhood, looking for certain herbs and plants he had learned about from Taina, who was too old to go out foraging now. Leo liked to go along. He would stump next to Moony and carry the basket, then play in the woods while they stopped to dig wild leeks, or collect morels or pick dandelion heads for the wine they made every spring. The Lupin family had been brewers and cheesemakers since the middle ages, and Moony and his dad carried on some of the old family traditions, making dandelion wine in the spring and brewing cyder in the fall with apples from the trees that grew along the back garden wall.

There were other plants Moony collected too, bloodroot, tansy, wild ginger, mullein. He dried these in the attic and used them to make teas he made Leo drink when he had a fever or a cold. He gave some to Uncle Sev as well, and sometimes Severus came foraging with them, the two men quiet and intent as they counted petals and stamens and looked things up in the leather bound herbal they carried with them. Uncle Sev was quiet and dour, corrected Leo's manners and never smiled, but he listened with concentration as Leo reported what he had seen in the forest and usually had a peppermint in his pocket which he handed to Leo without comment.

Often, they saw animals on these outings, an owl blinking at them sleepily from a hollow tree, a mother fox tumbling with her kits, and once, on an early morning, when the whole forest dripped with a soft grey mist, a unicorn stood shimmering in a clearing, and stared at them for a moment before turning silently into the trees.

Early one morning, the sun just over the rim of the horizon, the whole sky looking like the inside of a great blue egg, Leo was not too surprised when he heard a shrill cheeping sound and parted some grass to find a baby bird hopping about and crying pathetically. It was holding its wing in a funny way and when it saw Leo it froze like a stone.

“Hello little peep,” he said quietly, fascinated. “I won't hurt you.” He knew it would be foolish to tell this little creature not to be afraid. It was obviously terrified. Leo held out his hand, thinking the bird might be less afraid if it could smell him.

“I bet you're hungry, aren't you? Where're your parents? Did you fall out of the nest?” he crooned in a soft sing song that seemed to sooth the baby a little bit. Gently he took the little animal in his hands and scooped it close to his chest.

Then Moony was there. “What have we here?” he asked as Leo showed him what he had found. “Poor babe. It’s a crow. Look it’s very young. Just starting to get feathers.” The baby gave them an intelligent look. “You can train them, you know,” said Moony, interested. “They can learn to speak if you start with them young enough.” He looked up and around. “I suppose we ought to try to find it’s nest. The parents will want it back. Where did you come from little one?” he asked, scanning the trees.

“Is it a boy or a girl?” asked Leo.

“What do you think?” asked Moony with a smile.

“Boy,” said Leo decidedly.

“Should fit right in then.”

“Can I keep him?”

“We'll see.”

But it turned out they couldn't find the nest or any sign of the parents, so Moony allowed Leo to make a soft bed for the baby out of moss and leaves in the basket they carried, and to feed it a little bit of the bread and cheese they had brought along for their breakfast which he gobbled up greedily. By the time they got home the tiny bird was christened Crow and Leo was in love.

Crow turned out to be a very good pet. Pads built him a perch in the sitting room and Moony found an old wicker cage in the attic that Leo kept by his bed and that Crow liked to go into at night. At first they fed him warm milk from a dropper and mashed egg, but he soon graduated to table scraps and then to foraging for himself in the garden and in the fields beyond the little cottage. Leo would open the window of the nursery every morning and Crow would swoop out to go foraging on his own for an hour, before coming back to sit on Leo's shoulder at breakfast and beg for crusts of toast.

Crow became a particular favorite of Taina. He took to Crow right away and liked to help Leo feed him, and together they started teaching Crow a few words to repeat, rewarding him with bits of breadcrust soaked in honey, or spiders that Leo caught in the attic and kept in a small matchbox. Aurora loved him too but he was always Leo’s special pet and eventually she gave up trying to win him over and started canvassing Moony and Pads for a kitten.

********

Severus and Fiona decided to meet at The Rookery, a cozy gypsy restaurant that catered to magical and non magical patrons alike. It was tucked away, in a crumbling ancient building on the Thames, and Severus slipped a galleon into the hand of the Maitre d and got them a table by the windows so they could see the lighted boats and barges, drifting past them in the dark. Once again, the conversation between them was easy. Severus found himself talking about Hogwarts, the classes he was teaching, his students, conflicts among the faculty. Fiona talked about her upcoming trip to Prague, where she worked undercover both researching vampires and trying to establish an alliance with them. Severus realized, as she talked, that she was going to be putting herself in considerable danger, but she shrugged, sipped her wine and said, “I’m used to it, you know. I’ve been doing it for years.”

After dinner they walked along the river, the boats and barges slipping along beside them, the lights reflecting on the dark water. It was the first truly mild spring evening and they walked a long way. The quiet between them was comfortable, rather than awkward. Severus felt unusually relaxed, a little drunk, the warm food filling his belly, the soft air a perfect temperature. At last he pulled Fiona into the shadow under a stone bridge and they kissed for a long time.

“I don’t want you to go away,” he said at last.

“I’ll be back,” she said, her tone even, and stroked his cheek. “I told the girls I’d be in their play, you know.”

“I’ll worry,” he said. “I’m not used to worrying.”

“I’m glad you care,” she said, “It’s very flattering.”

“I’m not used to caring,” he replied.

“Good,” she said, and pulled him close to kiss him again.


	11. Saturday Shopping

Aurora’s toes were hitting the tops of her trainers and giving her a blister. When she showed this to Moony his face got a worried look and he said he supposed it was time for them to go shopping. When Pads got wind of the proposed shopping trip he said that they might as well make a fun day of it, and told Moony not to worry, that they could get some gold out of his vault at Gringott’s to pay for some new clothes.

Moony gave him a narrow look. “I thought we were saving that money for the children’s future,” he said.

“Aw Moony, I’ve barely spent a knut.”

“Good.”

“They’re both growing. Spring is coming. We can’t have them running about in shoes that are too small. You could use a new pair of shoes yourself,” he added, looking at Moony’s dusty loafers that were mended with spellotape.

“A sickle saved is a sickle earned,” countered Moony stubbornly.

“C’mon, Moony,” Pads said. “We can go to the second hand shops in Margin Alley if it pleases your penny pinching Welsh soul.”

Moony ran his hand through his hair, making it stand on end. “It’s just…. You’ve been given this incredible gift, you know. This inheritance. It just doesn’t seem right to spend it on everyday things.”

“ _We_  have,” corrected Pads.

“Well, all right, but you know what I mean.”

“Maybe I should get a job,” said Pads.

Moony looked at him sharply. “Really?”

Pads shrugged. “The children should be starting some kind of school in the fall anyway. It’s not like my life’s ambition is to be house husband to the world’s sexiest werewolf.” He grinned cheekily at Moony. “Not that it’s been bad. But well…. I _could_ go out and get a job. Everything’s different now, you know.”

Moony smiled at him then. “We’ll see,” he said, and he let Pads put his arms around him and kiss him.

“Shopping Saturday?” Pads said hopefully.

“Sure.”

***********

 So it was that the following Saturday found them in line at Gringott’s bank. Aurora had never been there before and she was fascinated by the bright open space, the shoes of busy witches and wizards clicking on the white marble floors and echoing off the high ceiling, the goblins, grim and unsmiling, busy at their work on high stools behind the dark wood counter. Moony said he’d wait upstairs, but the children went with Pads into the little cart, accompanied by the grimmest goblin in the place, down, down, down, past a waterfall and a real sleeping dragon with a huge heavy chain around its neck and tendrils of fire coming out it’s nostrils rhythmically as it snored.

“High security vault, Mr. Black,” said the goblin dryly, as the cart came to a screeching halt in front of an empty stone wall. The goblin put a hand against the stone and a doorway appeared in it. Aurora saw the glitter of gold and jewels and squeezed Leo’s hand in excitement. “Wait here, you two,” said Pads gruffly and went into the vault, returning a few minutes later with a heavy sack, which he vanished into his pocket with a tap of his wand. “That should do for a while,” he said and climbed back into the cart.

Upstairs Moony was chatting amicably with an older witch with a tight bun, square wire rimmed spectacles and a tartan cloak. She smiled when she saw Pads and shook his hand warmly, then peered at Aurora and Leo over her spectacles. “I am Professor McGonagall,” she said. “I shall be your teacher when you get to Hogwarts, you know.”

“Up Gryffindor,” said Leo, pumping his fist in the air, which earned him a smile.

“If you have Sirius’ talent on the quidditch field we shall be glad to have you. Good day to you all.” And she was gone with a swirl of tartan.

As they left the bank, Aurora noticed a man making the strange upside down W sign at them again. Moony turned her head quickly and led her outside, into the bright spring sunshine.

“What did McGoggles have to say?” asked Sirius in a low voice as they walked down the street which was crowded with Saturday shoppers.

“We were talking Hogwarts politics,” replied Moony. “She said she wants me back, but feels the timing isn’t right. There’s some new werewolf legislation coming up before the Wizengamot soon that is supposed to be an improvement over the current law. That could change things.”

“It’s good to know she’s on your side,” said Pads.

“It is, but it’s not really up to her, you know. The board of trustees has to approve all new appointments, and, well, it’s going to be a long time before I get past some of them.”

“I’d like to give some of them a piece of my mind,” said Pads, looking dark.

“Don’t start, Sirius,” said Moony. “We’ll talk about it later, all right?”

“I should get on that damn board of trustees,” said Pads. “I’d tell them. The Black name still means something, I think. Especially to people like them.”

“Later, Sirius,” said Moony firmly. “Where shall we go first to spend all our gold?”

**********

Several hours later they were loaded down with carrier bags containing new trainers for Leo and Aurora as well as an assortment of new shorts and t-shirts and a beautiful soft jumper in a deep purple. Moony had binned his old loafers and was wearing a lovely new pair that gave off a warm glow. They had spent an enjoyable hour at Weaseley’s Wizard Wheezes where the owner, called George, had loaded them down with a bag of free merchandise, including Leo’s absolute favorite, a fake vomit that gave off a horrible stench whenever someone stepped on it. Some people stared at them openly, some stopped Sirius on the street and congratulated him. Aurora saw a few make the strange warding sign at Moony as well.

They were heading up towards the Leaky Cauldron and what they all felt was a well deserved lunch when a woman with bright blond curly hair, purple rimmed cat’s eye glasses and magenta robes called to Sirius from across the way.

“Yoo hoo, Sirius,” she called, waving a hand. “Mr. Black?”

“Uh-oh,” murmured Moony under his breath, “Rita Skeeter.”

“That parasite,” Pads said bitterly. He shoved Moony and the children into the pub. “Get us a table in back,” he said softly. “I’ll deal with Rita Skeeter.” Aurora saw him turn, put a big smile on his face and call out “Hullo, Rita,” in a hearty voice.

***********

Half an hour later they were seated cozily together, eating roast beef sandwiches and delightfully greasy chips at a quiet table toward the back of the pub.

“So, how did you shake Rita Skeeter?” Moony wanted to know.

“Killed her with kindness,” said Pads. “Turned on the old charm. Made up a bunch of tosh how I was leaving the country soon, no time to chat, I’d be sure to look her up when I got back. She didn’t know what hit her.”

“Impressive,” said Moony.

“Who’s Rita Skeeter?” Aurora wanted to know.

“She’s a reporter,” said Moony.

“A gossip columnist,” Pads added. “For the Daily Fucking Prophet.”

“Language, Sirius,” said Moony.

“Sorry,” said Pads with a grin, not looking sorry at all, and took a big bite of his sandwich.

********

As they were finishing up Tom, the barman, who seemed almost as old as Taina came sidling up. He had a white apron tied around his waist and a tea towel flung over his shoulder.

“Good to see you out and about,” he said to Pads, his voice high and wavery. “Shows your not afraid to be seen. Keeps the gossip down.”

“Maybe,” said Pads. “Or maybe just feeds it. Rita Skeeter was on my tail earlier.”

Tom snorted derisively. “That one,” he said. “She’s a hard one to shake, is she.”

“I’ll say,” said Pads.

“We’re a bit short staffed for lunch right now,” said Tom. "Might do you some good to get out and work a couple shifts a week behind the bar for me. Get you back into circulation. Show the gossips you’re same as you ever were. Got nothing to hide, like.”

“You offering me a job, Tom?” Pads looked taken aback.

“Might pick up the lunch trade a bit,” Tom said thoughtfully. “Some people wouldn’t mind a chance to get served by the notorious Sirius Black. And you always did have a way with people.” He grinned toothlessly at Pads. “Think about it. No need to answer now. The job’s there when you decide you want it.” And with a nod he walked back to the bar.

********

The next day was Sunday and Pads made omelets and he and Moony sat around in their dressing gowns drinking coffee and reading the paper. Crow was sitting patiently on Pads' shoulder and was rewarded by the occasional crust of toast. Leo and Aurora, still in their pajamas, had drifted into the parlor where Taina sat in his chair by the fire, nursing a cup of tea. They had just started laying out train tracks and building unicorn stables out of blocks when they heard the angry slap of the newspaper hitting the table accompanied by a loud “Fuck!” from Pads. They crept back to the kitchen to see what the trouble was.

There on the table lay a section of the paper labeled Leisure. There was a big grainy picture of Pads who looked different somehow. The Pads in the picture kept putting his hands up to hide his face as if he were embarrassed. Crow was standing on the table pecking curiously at the photo. “Sirius,” he croaked, and looked around hopefully for a reward. The headline read, _**“Sirius Black, Britain’s Most Eligible Bachelor, Spotted in Diagon Alley,**_ ” in large boldface type.

“Bachelor, my arse,” said Moony. “Let me see that.” He grabbed the paper and read the article silently. “A bit behind the times, is Rita Skeeter,” he said dryly.

“Fuck!” said Sirius again, taking the paper from him and staring at it.

“Nice picture,” said Moony. “When do you reckon that was taken?”

Pads looked at the picture critically. “Hogwarts,” he said.”Seventh Year.”

“You don’t look that different,” said Moony with a smile.

“Just a couple of stone heavier,” said Pads.

“I don’t mind,” said Moony. “I like having something to grab onto. Don’t be too fussed, Sirius. It’s just idle gossip.”

“I’m going to kill that Rita Skeeter.”

“No murder,” said Moony. “We just got you acquitted, remember?”

“Give her a piece of my mind, then.”

“That’d just feed the beast,” said Moony. “What we need is something on her, something she doesn’t want to get out.”

“Such as?”

“I don’t know yet, do I?” Moony looked thoughtful. “Hermione Granger did some digging on her a few years ago when she was harassing Harry. I think maybe it’s time Hermione and I had a little chat.”

Pads smiled. “I like it when you go all cloak and dagger, Moony.” Moony gave him a rather wolfish grin in response.

“Why don’t you just get married?” piped up Leo. “Then that lady can’t go calling you a bachelor any more.”

Moony and Pads exchanged a look and Moony pulled Leo up onto his lap. “Well,” he said. “That is a very excellent idea, but unfortunately it’s not that simple.”

“Why not?” Leo wanted to know.

“Well, it’s not really legal for two men to get married.” said Pads.

“It is in Denmark,” you know, said Moony slowly, smoothing down Leo’s hair. “There are people working to change the laws in Britain as well, but it will probably be a long while before that happens.”

“One of you could dress up as a girl,” suggested Aurora. “You could pretend. Then you could get married.”

“You’d look lovely all in white,” said Pads, chucking Moony under the chin. Moony grimaced in response. “No, thank you,” he said.

“You could go to Denmark and get married,” suggested Leo.

“People do do that sometimes,” said Moony thoughtfully, twirling one of Leo's soft black curls around his finger. “Not that we really need to pay that much attention to the law, really. We’ve been living outside the law, in one way or another, most of our lives.”

He looked over at Sirius, his face suddenly intense. “Would you marry me, if I asked you?”

“Is this a proposal?” asked Pads.

“Yes,” said Moony. “I suppose it is. Shall I get down on one knee?”

“Not necessary,” said Pads and his voice had gone husky. “Of course I would,” he said. “How could you think otherwise?” And he leaned over Leo’s head and kissed Moony on the lips.

“Yay!” said Leo and Aurora together.

“Glad that’s settled,” said Pads. He was grinning from ear to ear.

“Is it?” said Moony, though he was also smiling happily. “It seems to raise more questions than answers. However, to celebrate, I suggest we get some gardening done. Who wants to help plant peas?” He stood up and set Leo on his feet. “Go get changed, you two. It’s a lovely spring day out there.”

********

The children thundered up the stairs to change, and Remus started to follow them. He was halfway up when he felt Sirius grab the back of his dressing gown. “C’mere, Moony,” Sirius said, gruffly and pulled Remus against his chest. The stairs were narrow and a bit creaky. Spring sunshine poured through a high window in the landing where they made a turn.

“I love you,” Sirius said as his arms encircled Remus and their mouths met in a kiss.

“Do you remember?” asked Remus “Coming home here after Azkaban?”

“I was a wreck,” said Sirius.

“We both were,” said Remus. “You were so weak you could hardly get up these stairs.”

“I spent that night puking as I recall,” said Sirius.

“Yes,” said Remus.

“You know what I remember?”

“What?”

“I remember coming to visit you here that first summer after school.”

“Oh,”

Sirius snorted “Yeah, which step was it, this one?”

“Probably up a couple.”

“You were so hot we never made it upstairs.”

“Yes, well…” Remus brushed his lips lightly over Sirius’. “There never was anyone else for me but you,” he whispered. “Not really.”

Aurora appeared at the top of the steps, “Moony,” she called, “are you going to brush my hair?”

“In a minute, love,” Moony called. He started to move away from Sirius who grabbed him again. “You meant it, yeah?” said Sirius. He suddenly looked worried.

“About getting married? I told you. I told you years ago. I told you the night you first came back.”

“What Moony?”

“I’m never letting you go,” Remus said in a low voice, his eyes intense on Sirius. “Not ever. I meant it then and I mean it now and I’ll mean it when we’re a couple of dried up crotchety old men bumbling around this house together. I love you. And yes, I want to get married. It’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

“Can we get rings?”

“Wedding rings?”

“Yes.”

Remus thought for a moment, then his face broke into a smile. “All right.”

“Good,” said Sirius, and kissed him one more time before he let him go. “I want a ring. I want everyone to know.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Margin Alley is borrowed from Stealing Harry by Copperbadge.


	12. Householders

As the days turned lovely and warm, Pads pulled his old motorbike out of the shed, where it had long sat neglected and started working on it. Leo sat with him, happy to hand him tools or assist with minor jobs such as sorting screws or polishing handlebars. Crow perched on the back fender, looking as if he were supervising the whole operation. Sirius and Leo taught him to say “Bike,” and “Vroom, Vroom,” and “Hell’s Angels forever,” rewarding him with worms Leo dug from the garden. Moony grumbled half heartedly about the reappearance of the motorbike in their lives, and stated absolutely that the children would not be allowed on “that deathtrap,” until they were “considerably older.” But then he’d stand and watch Pads working with a half smile on his lips and a faraway look in his eyes so that was all right.

Moony also got ruffled when Harry brought his broomstick round on the long spring evenings and took Leo and Aurora out for rides. Moony thought they were too young, but Harry and Sirius and even Taina prevailed, saying they were wizarding children and the sooner they got comfortable on a broomstick the better. Aurora thought there was nothing nicer in the whole world than sitting astride Harry’s firebolt, his cloak tucked around her against the cool spring breeze, soaring over the greening trees as the sky turned pink and violet and pale orange with the setting sun. Leo was convinced that flying was the best thing ever and started a relentless campaign to get a broomstick of his own.

Taina liked to work in the garden after breakfast and he would take Aurora out with him and show her how to tuck the seeds into the warm soil, how to water them, and how to tell the tiny green plants from the weeds. She liked being out there with him, with the smell of the damp earth, and the birds singing, and the warm sun making the plants grow. Often Pads and Leo would join them. Pads did the heavy spading and hoeing that Taina was too feeble to do. Leo mostly just played around with Crow. He was trying to teach him to fetch a stick he threw, but Crow thought such activities were beneath his dignity and Leo never got very far.

Aurora’s birthday came. It was one of the few things she really remembered from her old life, and she had been able to tell Moony and Pads the date, May 3rd. She woke that morning to find a wicker hamper at the foot of her bed. Inside was a tiny marmalade kitten with white feet and a pink mouth that opened and said mew in the most endearing way. Aurora picked it up with wonder and felt the little body rumble with an impossibly loud purr. She held it up to her chest and rubbed it under the chin where the fur was white. It kneaded its scratchy paws into her shoulder and butted its head against her neck. “Oh, you darling!” she breathed and loved it instantly. She named it Tabitha which was the most beautiful name she could think of. Indigo accepted the kitten without difficulty and started licking it as soon as she met it in a very maternal way, but Crow was quite jealous and taunted and pecked at the kitten, whenever he thought no one was looking. Tabitha liked to chase a small red ball Aurora found in her basket and play with bits of yarn. She slept in Aurora’s bed every night with the sky blue curtains, and the stars, and the red dragon.

“Wizarding cats live a long time,” Moony told her. “I’ve had Indigo since I was ten. That’s almost thirty years ago.”

“Did she live with you always?” asked Aurora.

“No,” said Moony. “She lived here while I was at school, but of course, I saw her at holidays. She came with me to London when I got my first flat, though. She was great company then.”

“I’m going to keep Tabitha with me always,” said Aurora.

“That’s as it should be,” said Moony.

********

There was an ancient stone circle on the little rise beyond the garden wall that Aurora and Leo were allowed to play in, as long as they didn’t go beyond it and told someone where they would be. It was a good place to play. The grass grew soft and fine in there and it was scattered with tiny violets and spring beauties. The flowers gave off a lovely scent which was surprisingly strong given their small size. The smell was intoxicating. It made Aurora feel hopeful and filled her head with all sorts of possibilities. The children liked to fill Moony’s old rucksack with the trains and unicorns and bits of track and go there to play, accompanied by Tabitha and Crow. There were smooth white stones scattered about inside the circle. Aurora’s magic seemed to work best there, and she coaxed the stones into roads and bridges, cunning houses for the unicorns and stations for the trains. Some warm days Leo and Aurora could spend the whole afternoon up there, lost in worlds of their own creation.

Pads would sometimes join them with a bottle of lemonade and a plate of sandwiches. He’d lie on his back in the warm grass and watch the clouds move across the sky, listening to the soothing rise and fall of the children’s voices. When they got tired of playing they’d cuddle up to him and he’d tell them stories from when he and Moony were young, when Harry’s parents were still alive and they were all at school together, or brave fighters for the Order of the Phoenix. They’d watch the big, puffy, fairweather clouds roll across the landscape and find animals and people and make up stories about them. Aurora would touch her fingers together, and, with the smell of the enchanted flowers still filling her head, she’d make bubbles in bright colors that would bounce across the grass to be chased by Tabitha. They’d stay up there until the shadows started to lengthen, and then they’d gather up the toys and go inside to make tea.

********

One day Peregrine Bones was back with a lot of pieces of parchment for Moony and Pads to sign. There was a date that got circled on the calendar in purple ink when they were all going to have to go to Wizarding Family Court and see a judge and then Leo and Aurora would be officially adopted. Aurora didn’t really know what that meant, but Moony explained it wouldn’t change anything at all except that it meant that no one could ever take Leo or Aurora away from Moony and Pads, not ever. It was like a guarantee, Moony said. This sounded like a good thing to Aurora, who still worried about the bad man from time to time.

“You two are setting a precedent in the wizarding world, you know,” said Peregrine.

“Good,” said Moony. “We’re incredibly grateful for all you’ve done.”

“We have a sympathetic judge. It should go all right,” Peregrine said, sitting back in his chair and sipping his tea thoughtfully, as Moony and Pads worked their way diligently through the stack of parchments that needed signing. “I found out some information about gay marriage and wizarding law, as you had asked,” he added.

“What did you find out?” asked Moony, looking up.

“Well, it’s quite interesting really,” Peregrine said, steepling his fingers. “There is no legal precedent in modern practice. Ridiculous, really, it’s 1999 after all. In the Muggle world, as you know, gay marriage is legal in Denmark, and in America several states are working towards civil union legislation, which is hopefully going to pass soon. Muggle Britain has no legal protection at all for same sex couples. However, if you dig back into older Wizarding statutes it’s very interesting.”

“What does it say?” asked Pads.

“The statutes go back to medieval times. The laws state that two householders, be they male or female, can share the same rights to property, livestock, crops, vineyards and children. Sounds like marriage to me, more or less. The laws are quite specific. And they’ve never been rescinded.”

“Being a householder has real significance in Celtic tradition,” said Moony. “It implies a magical and spiritual connection with the land and its crops. It implies powers and responsibilities to protect the entire household and ensure prosperity.”

“Exactly,” said “Peregrine. “A householder was the leader of the family, and the children and servants that worked the land. In medieval times, when people survived by subsistence farming, the decisions of the householder could mean the difference between life and death for an entire family group.”

“Cool,” said Pads.

“Indeed,” said Peregrine. “And there is a significant precedent of two men being named as householders together.”

“Fantastic,” said Moony. “Medieval queers.”

“Exactly,” said Peregrine, smiling at him. “It’s not surprising, really. We all know homosexuality is nothing new. And this is what’s really interesting. I did some digging into the Black family line. These particular statutes have been used on several occasions to establish legal households and lines of inheritance among your ancestors.”

Pads looked stunned. “You’re joking,” he said.

“I never joke,” said Peregrine.

Moony reached over and ruffled Pads' hair. “Not the first in your family then,” he said.

“No,” said Pads thoughtfully. “I guess not. They left that out of the family tree.”

“Set a date,” said Peregrine briskly, rising to go. “I don’t think we’ll have much trouble with the courts. And…” He looked down into his empty teacup shyly. It was the first time Aurora had ever seen him drop his officious air. “I’d be happy to perform the ceremony if you want.”


	13. The Ocean Queen

The performance of the next play had to be put off until Aunt Fiona returned from Prague. That was all right, really, except that Uncle Sev was even grouchier than usual. It gave them time to work on a dance sequence for the mermaids, set to a record of Tchaikovsky that Aurora had found, which they played on Moony’s old turntable. The performance was going to be in the sitting room of the little house in Wales so that Taina could see it and wouldn’t have to travel. Leo and Ezra were working on a comic bit that involved the pirates sitting around and drinking grog and making a lot of farting and belching noises. Anya desperately wanted them to cut it but they insisted on leaving it in, and, with the threat of an actor’s strike hanging over her head, Anya conceded, and the drinking scene, with all its inappropriate noises, remained.

The morning of the performance found Severus and Fiona in a second hand shop in Margin Alley, looking a bit frantically for costumes for the show. Fiona was behind a curtain trying on a blue silk dress, while Severus looked despondently through a rack of old coats and jackets. It was their third second hand shop and they were both getting punchy.

“How’s this?” Fiona asked, pulling the curtain back. She stood and twirled with a rustle of deep blue silk. The dress fitted tightly in the bodice and flared over her hips to below her knees. She had put some kind of tiara she had found in her hair. She looked absolutely gorgeous. For a moment Severus was rendered speechless. He swallowed and looked away. “I think it is very nice,” he said. “You should get it.”

She came over and kissed his cheek. “Just you, then,” she said.

“Yes, just me.” And he kissed her back.

At last they found a white shirt with a ruffle and an old fashioned velvet coat with big buttons down the front. It was an ugly brown, and stained, but Fiona charmed it deep purple and she thought he looked rakishly handsome in it, though he felt completely ridiculous. Embre was making a pirate hat for him, and so his costume was done.

At the register, Severus insisted on paying for their selections.

“That’s ridiculous,” said Fiona. “I’m an independent woman.”

“It’s not much,” said Severus. “And I want to.” Something in his tone ended the argument and then they were out in the bright sunshine, blinking a bit after the dusty darkness of the shop. Fiona still had the tiara in her hair and it sparkled.

Fiona took his hand, “Come back to my flat,” she said. “I’ll make you lunch. We can walk, it’s not far.”

Severus swallowed again. “All right,” he said.

**********

By evening quite a crowd had gathered in the little house in Wales. Baz and Simon were there and Heather arrived with her husband, called Jonas and the new baby whose name was Phillip. Aurora thought his little scrunchy face was just like a monkey and he had a very loud cry. Baz, who liked babies, took charge of Phillip so Heather could slip into the kitchen and help with the last minute preparations for the play. Taina was seated in a place of honor in his easy chair by the fire. Harry arrived with a whole group of his friends. Aurora knew most of them by now, but there was a new boy she didn’t know, a stocky, quiet boy, called Dudley, who looked at the floor a lot and didn’t seem to know what to do with his hands. Harry introduced him as his cousin.

When Dudley was introduced to Uncle Sev, he looked down his long nose and gave him a sharp look. “I knew your mother,” he said to Dudley, who looked like he wanted to disappear into the floor under that severe gaze. Aurora was used to Uncle Sev by now, but she felt pity for Dudley nonetheless.

“You did?” squeaked Dudley nervously.

“We went to primary school together,” Uncle Sev said. “Her sister was my best friend. Your Aunt Lily.”

“Harry’s Mum,” Dudley said in a whisper.

“Yes.” said Uncle Sev. “Well...tell her Severus Snape sends his regards.”

“All right,” said Dudley, swallowing hard. “I will.”

********

In the kitchen chaos reigned. Heather and Fiona were fussing with the pirate hat, which had come out a bit misshapen. Uncle Sev had flat out refused to wear it unless it was fixed. He was sitting in a corner in his purple coat and ruffled shirt, going over his lines and looking up occasionally to glower at the children. Anya was trying to get Aurora and Embre to go over the mermaid dance one more time. She had borrowed Baz’s wand and had gotten it to produce a warbly version of Tchaikovsky's waltz as she waved it. The boys were practicing their sword fighting scene loudly, and they kept adding in new bits, mostly involving farting, which Anya expressly forbade them to use. Baz was walking about the kitchen with Phillip, humming to him softly, although the baby’s increasingly inpatient whimpering was getting harder and harder to ignore.

The play itself was a huge success. Pads had made a big cauldron of bean and bacon soup and an enormous tray of cornbread. Moony went down into the cellar and came up with a jug of dandelion wine. He opened it with a pop and poured it into thick glass mugs. It was a golden liquid with a creamy foam on top that smelled like flowers. Harry gave Aurora a sip from his glass and she thought it tasted just like sunshine. It was a cool evening and Harry and Ron made a fire in the back, in a stone firepit they had laid out earlier. Everyone served themselves soup and bread and gathered around the fire, eating and drinking and talking about the play.

“I liked the part where no one threw up,” said Moony.

“I liked all the fart jokes,” said Pads.

“I liked the way the mermaid and the cabin boy fall in love, then it turns out the cabin boy is really a girl, but they fall in love anyway,” said Simon.

“The best part by far was when the pirate captain falls for the ocean queen,” said Moony, grinning at Uncle Sev who was sitting by the fire, looking as severe as ever except he had his arm around Aunt Fiona.

“Don’t push it, Lupin,” he growled at Moony.

“I liked the part where the other mermaid finds out that she’s really a human who’s been transformed and goes off to find her fortune,” said Hermione thoughtfully. “It shows you don’t have to fall in love to be happy.”

“I thought the best part was when the sea monster bit the cabin boy and the blood spurted,” said Leo with relish. The fake blood had been procured by Ginny from Weaseley’s Wizard Wheezes, and Aurora had concentrated really hard to get it to spurt realistically. It must have worked because she had seen Baz turn pale and clutch for Simon’s hand during that part as she had watched from the wings.

“That’s why the mermaid and the cabin boy had to fall in love,” said Aurora. “Because the mermaid healed him with her magic tears.”

“Even though he turned out to be a girl?” asked Harry.

“Doesn’t matter,” said Aurora. “Love is love.”

“What’s the next play going to be then?” Simon asked. He ruffled up Anya’s hair fondly as all eyes turned to her.

“Not sure yet,” she said thoughtfully. “Maybe something set in ancient Egypt? Pyramids and asps and mummies and things.”

“Snake pit scene!” shouted Ezra with enthusiasm.

“All right,” agreed Anya. “And..” she added, grinning up at Moony, “We’ll have to work in a puking scene.”

“Brilliant,” said Moony.

**********

As darkness fell the fireflies came out by the hundreds and the children all ran about trying to catch them in jars. The teens sat around the fire finishing off the dandelion wine. The adults all gravitated indoors where they started dancing to some jazzy music playing on Moony’s old turntable. Aurora came in to get a drink of water and stood watching them from the shadows. Moony and Pads had their arms around each other, forehead to forehead, swaying gently. Baz and Simon were practicing some fancy swings and twirls with each other, and laughing and cursing softly when they messed them up. Heather and Jonas were dancing with baby Phillip tucked between them. Uncle Sev had his arm around Aunt Fiona’s waist, his other hand on her shoulder, guiding her gently as though she were made of glass. Dancing was an adult pleasure that Aurora didn’t really understand, but the smoky music filled her up, and seeing all her important grown ups, moving and swaying to the jazzy tones filled her with a happy feeling that was different from anything she had ever known.

At the end of the evening Aurora approached Uncle Sev as he stood alone for a few moments, waiting for Fiona to be ready to leave. She tugged at his sleeve and he looked down at her.

“Thank you Uncle Sev, for being in our play again,” she said.

“You’re welcome,” he replied.

“Moony and Pads are getting married.”

“I know.”

“Are you going to marry Aunt Fiona?”

“That is quite a rude question, you know,” he said. Aurora looked crestfallen. She hadn’t meant to be rude.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. She looked down at her feet.

Severus squatted down in front of her and lifted her chin. “It’s all right,” he said. “You really should know better, but I don’t mind, somehow. And… I am interested in your opinion.”

“About marrying Aunt Fiona?”

Uncle Sev nodded once.

“Yes, definitely,” said Aurora. “I think she would be a very good wife.”

“I will take your advice under consideration,” said, Uncle Sev, and then he actually did smile at her briefly, something Aurora did not remember ever having happened before, although perhaps she had not always seen Uncle Sev’s face as he watched her comings and goings.

“Good night to you,” he said, standing and taking her hand as usual. “Be a good little girl. I shall see you soon for another chess match.”

And he put his arm around Aunt Fiona who had appeared at his side and together they walked out the front door and down the lane where the moonlight shone white on the crushed stone road and the spring air reverberated with the the loud, insistent, shrilling of the peepers.

*******

In the end, everyone stayed up way too late and most of Harry’s friends decided to sleep over. Remus went up into the attic to fetch down the squashy purple sleeping bags that he and Sirius had used when they were boys and soon the house was filled with sleeping teens on what seemed every available surface. Remus made a final circuit of the house and grounds, doused the remains of the smouldering bonfire and scooped up Leo who had fallen asleep beside it with his thumb in his mouth. He carried him upstairs and tucked him into bed. Aurora was reading behind her blue curtains with a torch. He kissed her and made her turn off the light, covered Crow’s cage and got gratefully into bed next to Sirius.

“Full house tonight,” Remus commented as he snuggled against Sirius’ warmth.

“I like it,” said Sirius happily. “It reminds me of the old days.”

“It’s nice they all feel comfortable here,” said Remus. They lay there for a few minutes, listening to the sound of the peepers coming up from the river.

“D’ya think Anya’s gay?” asked Sirius at last. “She always plays the boy.”

 “I think she’s innocent,” said Remus thoughtfully. “I think she’s too young to know. But we’re raising them so it seems natural for them to love whoever they want, and that can only be a good thing. I’ll tell you who is gay, though.”

“Who?”

“Dudley Dursley.”

“What? How d’you know that?”

Remus grinned at him, “Harry pulled me aside and told me that Dudley was just starting to come out, and he was really shy about it, but he thought it might be good for him to meet all of us, but not to say anything as it might embarrass him.”

“Crowley! Dudley Dursley! Poor Petunia!”

“Oh, she’ll adjust. Most parents do. Look at my parents. At least Dad.”

“Yeah, well, your dad is exceptional,” Sirius paused thoughtfully “I thought Harry and Dudley hated each other.”

“I guess now that they’re both out of that house they’ve been getting on better, meeting up occasionally for a pint. Dudley did some undercover work for the Order last year you know. He was quite useful, according to Kingsley.”

“Incredible,” said Sirius rolling over and pulling Remus close. “Sev and Fiona seemed pretty cozy tonight,” he added.

“Thank Merlin,” said Remus. “It’s about time he had somebody. They really were fucking adorable.”

“Think they’re shagging yet?”

“Definitely,” said Remus. “Sev is never that relaxed unless he’s just gotten laid.”

Sirius laughed at that. “Did he tell you any details?”

“No, but he will,” said Remus. “I’ll get it out of him eventually. It’s only a matter of time.” He looked up at Sirius. “You’re actually happy for him,” said Remus. “You are actually hoping this works out for him.”

“Well, yeah,” said Sirius, running his hand through his hair. “I’m not a complete arsehole, you know. Poor bloke. You can see how lonely he’s been.”

“Actual empathy,” Remus wondered. “For Severus! I never thought I’d see the day.”

“James is probably rolling over in his grave,” said Sirius glumly.

“Lily'd be pleased, though.”


	14. Motorbike

Early summer was a pleasant time in the little house in Wales. The fields were very green and the sky was very blue. There were strawberries in the garden, and new peas, and green onions, which Aurora loved to eat on a slice of buttered bread. Tabitha busied herself chasing butterflies in the yard and one morning, proudly brought Aurora a small mouse she had caught. Moony arrived home one evening with a box of day old chicks, fluffy yellow balls, that made the most lovely soft cheeping sound. He installed them in a box in a quiet corner of the kitchen, and charmed the box to stay warm. It was Leo and Aurora’s job to feed them, and clean out the box, and bring them out in the yard every day and watch over them as they ran about and ate the soft green grass and scratched for worms.

Harry had finished out his first year of auror training and moved into his room in the attic for the summer. He got a job with Mrs. Ames who ran the greengrocer’s in town, the same summer job Remus had had as a teenager. Mrs. Ames remembered Harry’s dad from when he used to come to visit. Harry said he was pleased with the job which would help him save money for the fall and have time to have some fun as well. He and Sirius started laying out a quidditch pitch in the back pasture and charmed it so that the players could not be seen from the road, and one day Sirius brought home a broomstick of his own to ride. After that they played quidditch in the back pasture every evening, often accompanied by several of Harry’s friends, who usually ended up staying the night. Sirius loved it. He kept a pot of soup on the stove for dinners and a large kettle of porridge in the kitchen for breakfast and chatted amiably with the frequently changing line up of teens that flowed through the little house.

One beautiful summer morning Aurora’s throat felt scratchy and by afternoon she felt hot and had a headache. Pads put her to bed, with Tabitha and a pile of books to keep her company, and started making chicken soup. Moony got home that evening and made her drink a bitter tea made of the herbs he kept dried in bunches in the attic. She had a restless, feverish night, with dreams of the bad man and the teeth, and by morning her skin was breaking out in itchy red dots and Leo was sick as well. Auntie Andromeda came by and confirmed that the children had dragon pox, nothing to worry about, all wizarding children got it sooner or later, and Uncle Sev arrived later that day with a creamy orange potion that smelled of burnt toffee and smoke and soothed Aurora’s aching throat.

The days seemed long and slow as the children recovered from the dragon pox. For the first few days they didn’t even want to play and the light hurt their eyes. They sipped chicken soup and Harry came and read aloud to them in the darkened room. After a few days they were restless and bored and a very elaborate network of train tracks and unicorn houses snaked over and around their beds and onto the nursery floor.

When they were finally well enough to get up they found that Taina had been sick as well, and that it was taking him a long time to get better. He was pale and weak and not able to putter around the garden as he liked to do. Pads picked him up every day in his strong arms and carried him to a chair in the back garden, where he would sit in the warm sunshine and watch the chicks pecking in the grass. Crow perched in a nearby tree and watched anxiously over him.

One night Ginny came to help Harry babysit because Moony and Pads were going out. Ginny arrived on her broom with a box of pizza from Machiavelli’s, charmed to stay hot, with the picture of the devil king on the cover. Pads said he and Moony used to order from Machiavelli’s all the time when they were young and living in London. He was going to meet Moony after work. Aurora stood in the bathroom and watched him shave and then sat on the big bed in his room as he brushed his hair and tried to decide what shirt to wear.

“The white one,” she said, as he held it up in the mirror. “It makes your hair look all black and shiny.”

“I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe the blue?”

“The white.”

“All right, then,” said Pads, putting on the shirt and buttoning it up. ”The white.” He got his leather motorcycle jacket out of the back of the wardrobe and put that on as well.

“You look very handsome,” she told him as he looked himself over critically in the mirror.

“You think so?” he asked. “I don’t go out much.”

“You’ll be fine,” she said. “Moony likes it when you wear that jacket.”

“Thanks, Pip.” He grinned and came over and tickled her until she shrieked.

She went downstairs with him where the motorbike sat in the front garden, oiled and shined and ready to go. Harry, Ginny and Leo came out to join them. They watched Sirius put on his helmet and get on the bike. He said a charm and it roared into life. He grinned at them and waved and Aurora grasped Leo’s hand as the bike ascended into the air in a graceful arc, and got slowly smaller and smaller until it was just a silver speck glinting in the late afternoon sun.

**********

Of the many things that Remus had yearned to share with Sirius, all the long years they were separated, followed by the long years they were in hiding, going to hear Baz play at his club was one of the ones he had thought of the most. He had been looking forward to it all day. He hurried through his last few calls, briefly looked over a new shipment of books that had arrived from an estate sale, and decided he could wait until the following day to properly sort through them. He was out the door at 6:00 exactly with a friendly jingle of the bells that hung there.

Sirius was standing across the road, against a brick building warmed by the last rays of the setting sun. He was wearing his old leather jacket, and a white shirt. A motorcycle helmet dangled from his hand. Remus felt his breath hitch, just for a moment. Then Sirius spied him and his whole face lit up as Remus crossed the busy road to join him.

“Heya Moony,” said Sirius smiling at him. “Have a good day?”

“It was all right,” said Remus smiling back. “Hungry?”

“A bit,” said Sirius He brushed at the front of Remus’ jacket and straightened his collar. It was a substitute, Remus knew, for throwing his arms around him in the middle of the busy street.

“We can grab a bite before the show, if you like,” Remus said. “There’s a decent curry place in that neighborhood, or there used to be.”

“Sounds fine. Shall we get going then?”

“You rode the motorcycle, didn’t you?”

“I brought you a helmet,” said Sirius, handing it to him. They started walking together down a side street. “I’m parked just here down the lane.”

“I always feel a bit of a girl riding on the back of that thing,” said Remus as he strapped on his helmet.

“Don’t whinge,” said Sirius, strapping on his own helmet. He got on the bike and kicked hard at the ignition. It started with a roar as Remus climbed on behind him. “We’re getting married after all. Sit back there like the proud gay man you were meant to be and enjoy the ride.”

Remus wrapped his arms around Sirius’ waist and rested his cheek against his broad shoulder.

“All right, Moony?” shouted Sirius over the noise of the engine. .

“Yeah, I’m good,” said Remus feeling suddenly, buoyantly happy. He gave Sirius a squeeze round the middle. “You never fail to surprise me.”

“I’ll make an honest woman of you yet,” said Sirius as he pulled out into the stream of traffic.

**********

They entered the club just as the first set was starting. Simon was sitting at a table close to the stage with Anya beside him, and he spied them as they entered and waved them over. Anya gave Remus a hug and grinned at Sirius.

“Hiya Moony, Hiya Pads,” she said.

“What’re you doing here, little one?” Remus asked, ruffling her dark hair fondly.

“Baz has been letting her play the end of the first set,“ said Simon, a bit of fatherly pride sneaking into his voice. “She’s pretty good.”

The six musicians on stage were getting going, and the little group around the table fell silent watching them. Baz, always a commanding presence on stage, was at the front, going back and forth with the clarinetist in a kind of fierce duo. His face was pale, his black hair swept back, the bow moving furiously over his violin strings, the smoky, jazzy tones surging up and filling the small room. Something in Baz was set free on stage, an artistry he kept suppressed in the rest of his life. Remus hadn’t seen him perform in five years, not since Sirius had escaped from Azkaban and returned to him. He wouldn’t leave Sirius at home alone to go hear music, and Sirius had been in hiding, unable to leave the house. Now Remus couldn’t stop watching Baz on stage. Sirius found his hand and squeezed it under the table. Remus looked at him sharply. Sometimes he had a hard time out in public, but he was watching Baz, entranced, and Remus could see that he was fine.

“How long has he been playing?” Sirius asked Simon.

“As long as I’ve known him,” Simon replied. “Which is a very long time. He used to play all this doleful classical stuff. Then he discovered jazz and it really took off.”

“He’s ….. good,” said Sirius.

“It’s…..another side of him,” said Simon, smiling up at the stage fondly.

At the end of the first set Baz proudly called up “My daughter Anya.” She looked tiny and nervous under the bright lights, her face pale, dark hair pulled back. Once she started playing with Baz she was fine though, and they played two songs together, bows moving in sync, with the band in the background. It was clear that she was a natural performer. The audience loved her and the set ended with loud applause.

Baz and Anya sat with them at the break. Baz was sweating a bit, his black hair damp against his head. Anya was smiling happily, clearly relieved that it had gone well. Baz ordered a root beer for Anya and a lager for himself then turned to Remus and Sirius.

“How’re the wedding plans coming?” he asked.

Remus and Sirius looked at each other. “Still working it out,” said Remus, uncertainly.

“Yeah, we don’t want too much fuss,” said Sirius.

“We were thinking maybe we’d just get married at Peregrine’s office, and then, I dunno, take the kids out for lobster or something.”

“We could do something at the house,” added Sirius, ”But it seems a lot of work and…..” he drifted off vaguely.

“Moony,” said Baz, looking at him sharply. “If you think for one moment that I am going to miss your wedding, you are dead wrong.”

“Yeah,” said Simon with a grin. “I wouldn't cross him on that one if I were you.”

“I… it’s just,” Remus floundered. “The fuss.....the expense. We’re not really up for a big event.”

“You should have it our house, obviously,” said Baz. “No, hear me out,” he added, cutting Remus off with a gesture of his hand as he started to protest. “You don’t want to be in charge of this yourselves. You won’t be able to focus on what’s really important.”

“Baz and I are happy to do it,” Simon said. “We can keep it small if you like. And besides,” he added. “Baz loves weddings.”

“We can do something in the back garden, set up a canopy and some flowers. My step mother knows some decent caterers, she’s always arranging some party or other, she can help me with that. And after it’s over,” he said sternly, “We’re taking the kids and you’re going to Majorca or something for a week.”

“I….er,” said Moony.

“It’s settled,” said Baz, finishing his pint and rising. “You’d best get Anya home,” he said to Simon. His lips brushed the top of Simon’s head lightly and he returned to the stage.

*********

Remus and Sirius arrived home to find the children still awake, snuggled on the sofa with Harry and Ginny, sleepily watching Beauty and the Beast on Remus’ old VCR. The empty Machiavelli's Pizza box and a few crumpled packets of crisps lay on the floor.

“Still awake, you two?" said Remus lightly as they entered.

“Sshh, Moony, it’s almost over,” said Aurora.

Harry looked up at Remus. “How was the motorbike ride?” he asked with a grin.

“Fine,” said Remus, grinning back.

Remus and Sirius hunkered down to watch the end of the movie, Remus in his dad’s easy chair, Sirius on the floor with his head against Remus’ knees. Leo came over and crawled into Sirius’ lap and put his thumb in his mouth.

“Teeth and bed,” said Remus as Belle and the beast danced off together in the ending scene and the music surged.

“Aw, Moony,” protested Aurora. “I’m too sleepy to brush.”

“Me too,” said Leo yawning.

“Brush anyway,” said Remus, rising and herding them gently upstairs. “Little vampires and werewolves have to take extra good care of their teeth.”


	15. A Hike In the Mountains

Fiona returned from her latest trip to Prague and met Severus in Hogsmeade one clear summer morning. They stopped in a small shop and bought bread and cheese and apples. Fiona had brought a bottle of wine, magically chilled, and some small cups made of horn. Severus had a knife and some chocolate in his bag. They walked out of town on a quiet road and then headed off on a footpath that led into the woods and up into the mountains. They walked for several hours in the cool morning air. The light breeze was ruffling their hair and the birds were singing happily. When they got hungry they stopped at a little niche which looked out over the view of a Hogsmeade and the lake, with the high turrets of Hogwarts off in the distance. They shared the food and the wine, but Severus was unusually quiet and Fiona could sense his distance. He took her in his arms and kissed her, laying her back in the warm soft grass with the locusts of high summer trilling loudly about them, and Fiona realized how much she had missed him, his touch and scent, in the weeks she’d been away. But he seemed distracted and after a few moments he broke off, and sat up, looking off into the distant view. He looked so young, suddenly. It was the pose, the way he was sitting, all arms and legs, chin on his knees, like a teenage boy.

“Fiona,” he said hoarsely.

“What’s wrong, Sev?”

“I can’t….. I shouldn’t have brought you up here today.”

“What is it?” Fiona said.

Severus pushed his hair off his forehead and looked at her despairingly. “It’s….. wrong. You don’t want me. I’m…..no good.”

“Fuck, Sev.”

“I don’t know what I was thinking. I wasn’t thinking, obviously. I was being…..lulled….willfully oblivious. But every time I see you, every time I touch you… it just gets worse.”

“What gets worse?”

“I like you more every time.”

Fiona took a deep breath in. “And this a problem because.....?”

“Surely you’ve noticed this,” he said angrily, and turned his left wrist over to show her the mark emblazoned there.

She said nothing and touched the mark lightly with a finger.

“Do you know what you had to do, to get this?” he asked, fury now building in his voice.

“No,” she whispered.

“You had to kill,” he said. “You couldn’t take the mark unless you had killed. And then, once you had it, the killing didn’t stop. You…. had to…..keep at it.” He grabbed a branch from the ground beside him and started stripping the bark from it furiously. Fiona was reminded again, vividly, of a teenage boy.

She watched until the branch was stripped of all bark. The locust song was louder than ever in the silence. She took his hand, turned it over and touched the mark again.

“How many?” she asked.

“Three,” he said miserably. “Four if you count Dumbledore. You probably know what happened there, the rest of the world does.”

“I thought he asked you to do it,” said Fiona. “I thought he was already dying.”

“He did and he was,” Severus confirmed hollowly. “It doesn’t matter.”

“I think it does.”

“It…..haunts me still. He was…...I looked up to him. He was one of my only friends. He showed me the way out… out of all that darkness, to become a person I could live with. And then… he decided….I…...” Sev paused and spat out the last sentence angrily. “That it was my job to murder him.”

“I thought it was an act of mercy.”

“I’m a killer.”

“So am I.”

“You are?”

“I’m a vampire hunter, Sev.”

“That’s different.”

“It is and it isn’t. It’s complicated. Different vampires make different choices. Look at Baz. And that little Aurora you’re so crazy about. Some day she will have to choose as well. And…. I’ve made mistakes. I’ve tried to be careful, but… sometimes you don’t know, until after.”

He was silent, staring down at the valley. “And… we were at war too, in those years,” she continued. “With the mage. I’ve done things….. things I’m not proud of, things I’d rather forget. It’s not just you.”

“Fiona,” he breathed.

“I’m falling for you, Sev,” she said. “That hasn’t happened for me in a very long time. So you might as well tell me everything.” When he said nothing she added, “I do believe that people can change. I know that I have.”

She pulled him back down toward her, so his head rested against her shoulder. She kissed his forehead, and Severus wondered if it was the last kiss she would ever give him. He felt an unbearable tightness in his chest at that thought.

“Tell me,“ she said softly, but firmly. “Tell me what happened.”

“I don’t want to,” he said.

“Sev,” she said, and she pulled his head back and held him with her grey eyes, “The only way forward for us is through this.”

He saw the truth of that, and nodded. He laid his head back down and let her stroke his hair for a few minutes. When he spoke at last it was into her shoulder. “It was, well, we all wanted…….his approval, his…...favour.” Severus’ voice was husky but it steadied as the memories came flooding back. “We all wanted to join up. We were pretty obsessed, drunk on dreams of glory, of power, of a better world, a purer race. Avery and Mulciber were both in my class. We started sneaking out to meetings our sixth year. Mulciber, got his mark first, he killed an old woman walking home at dusk through a deserted play park. That was how it was. Random Muggle killings. Voldemort loved it. He loved it that we were willing to kill for him. It juiced him. All I remember feeling at the time was sheer green envy, that Mulciber had got his first. I never stopped to think about what it really meant. That someone had died. That wasn’t in my world view at the time. So Avery and I went out together one night. It was dark. We targeted two men coming home from a bar. They were drunk. We each…. took one. I mean…...killed one. I never saw their faces. It was written up in the Muggle press as random street violence. We took their wallets to make it look like a simple robbery gone wrong.”

Fiona pressed her fingers into his back, a gentle pressure. The other hand kept stroking his hair. “It…..it started to change for me that night,” he went on. “I couldn’t get that image out of my head, of them lying, there, dead, two young men, just ….snuffed out. I didn’t think I would feel guilty, but I did. And the guilt kept growing. But of course, by then it was too late. I took the mark that very night. Avery and I vouched for each other. And the Dark Lord was pleased, very pleased. He started giving me little compliments, singling me out for special assignments, including me among his most trusted followers. I don’t know why he liked me. Probably he sensed my need, my hunger, for any kind of approval. I was cut from a different cloth than most of his followers, who were mostly rich young purebloods, spoiled brats, really. Secretly I hated them all, and wanted to best them. And I was already cagey enough to start mentally protecting myself from Voldemort, using my occlumency to hide my feelings of guilt.”

Severus’ voice had taken on almost a sing-song quality, lying there in the warm sun, the trilling of the locusts in his ears, the smell of Fiona right there, beside him, the feel of her fingers, stroking his hair, lost in the memories. “ _It’s the last time,”_ he thought, “ _The last time she’ll want to be together like this, to hold me.”_ He felt as if his heart was breaking in two, and yet some how, he went on. Now that he had started he knew there was no going back.

“After I took the mark there was a lot of violence.Things were really escalating at the time. Voldemort was consolidating his power and a lot of new people were signing on. I was still at Hogwarts which protected me from some of it. And as time went on, I was glad of that. But we still managed to sneak out one or two nights per week. I found out quickly that I didn’t have a taste for violence, not real violence. Brutality was celebrated and there were those who thrived on it. Muggle torture, rapes. I got good at staying in the background for a lot of it, looking like I was participating while keeping my wand pointed down. There was a lot of drinking, people were using coke, meth. A few were addicted to heroin, but I managed to avoid that, thank Merlin. It was always chaotic, a bunch of violent young men, hyped up on alcohol and other drugs, out to kill and torment. I usually managed to get lost in the chaos. But not always. That’s how the the next...…...murder happened.

“The third one was on Voldemort’s direct orders. A traitor to the cause. A man who had taken the mark, then turned double agent for the Order. Gold had changed hands, he was mostly an opportunist, trying to feather his nest from both sides. Voldemort held a trial for him of sorts, but it was obvious to everyone there that he was not going to leave that room alive. He was terrified, crying, begging for mercy. He shat himself - the stench was awful. And the Dark Lord looked right at me, and smiled, like he was doing me the greatest of favors. “Severus,” he said in that high voice of his. “Tonight the honor is yours.’” Severus pulled Fiona closer, his throat tight. “I… I had no choice in that situation, no way out. If I had hesitated, even for a moment, he would have known my true feelings, that in my heart I was no killer. And so I….. I raised my wand, and cursed him with the Avada Kedavra. I…. that time I saw his face. I…. I still dream about him.” Severus shuddered, took a ragged breath and went on.

“I was there when they killed Regulus Black as well. Regulus was my friend. He was a couple of years behind us at school, and he looked up to me.That’s partly why Sirius hates me so much. He blames me for encouraging his little brother to become a death eater, and he’s not wrong about that. But he never found out that I was there that night, the night Regulus was killed, and hopefully he never shall. They tortured Regulus for hours. I was doing everything I could not to have spells I cast actually hit him, and to deflect what I could. But of course I did nothing to stop the inevitable. There was nothing I could have done, nothing I could think of. I wanted to just grab Regulus and run but we never would have made it out of there alive. Voldemort's torture chamber was magically reinforced so no one could enter or leave without a complicated series of passwords and spells. Only his inner circle knew the specific combinations. It was like a huge magical lock.

“At least that night Voldemort was determined to do the killing himself. He had been fond of Regulus. Promoted him fast, taken with his charm and good looks, his wealth and family name. He was always angry that he couldn’t recruit Sirius and James, you know, they were just the sort of young purebloods he was looking for to fulfill his vision of the new world order he was creating. The fact that they sided with Dumbledore always rankled him. When he found out Regulus had betrayed him he was furious, in a white hot rage, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so angry, before or since. He wanted him to die slowly. The fire started at the mark and consumed him gradually from within, the flames rising slowly through his body, his head was the last to go, screaming in pain, begging for mercy, his eyes, burning into me until the last.

“I started to hate Voldemort that night. And when he started to go after Lily, that’s when I went to Dumbledore. But in the end, I couldn’t save her, and that….. that was the worst of all. I can never forgive myself for the part I played in that, not ever. It.....It broke me.” Severus melted into sobs then, loud and childish. The tears, that had been burning in his eyes, spilled out and rolled down his face. Fiona held him and let him cry. When at last he quieted she lifted his chin and kissed him on the mouth.

“Sev,” she said.“It’s over.”

“Stop,” he said, kissing her back. He couldn’t help it, she felt so good. He felt like he had melted now, like he was a puddle of tears and misery. There was nothing else left. Tears and misery and love. He didn’t know what was going to happen next. He guessed they were going to hike back down the mountain and then he would never see her again. He kissed her again, and again, he couldn’t stop, he didn’t want to stop and now the heat was rising between them, and he knew that he loved her and that nothing else mattered. “Stop,” he said again desperately and wrenched his mouth away. He turned from her, his shoulders shaking.

“Sev,” she said, “I told you. I’ve all ready fallen for you.”

“What does that mean?” he replied miserably.

“It means I…...Look Sev. I knew most of this already, or guessed it. I knew you were a death eater. I knew what went on during the war. I’ve done things myself, things I’m not proud of.”

“Let’s just go,” he said. “I’ll get you down this wretched mountain and I won’t bother you any more, all right?”

“No,” she said.

“No?” he turned and looked at her, questioningly. A tiny flame of hope sparked in his chest.

“Look, Sev,” she said, and her eyes were very bright, her face determined. “I can’t change the past, and neither can you. I can’t erase what happened, or even forgive you for it. I believe you had your reasons for doing what you did, and I believe you’ve changed. All we really have is the present. All we can really change is the future. Thank you for being honest with me. Because after hearing all of that, I still want this. With you.”

“You do?”

“Yes.”

Severus looked at Fiona a long moment. And in that moment he felt something shift. He would never be free of the past, he could never forget all the mistakes he had made, all the wrong he had done. He didn’t understand why Fiona would want him, or how she was willing to move forward with him knowing what she knew about him, but in that moment, he started to forgive himself, just a little bit.

“Are you sure?” he breathed.

“Yes, I am,” she answered.

“Why?” he asked. His voice was a whisper. The sun was very warm and the locusts were very loud.  
.  
“I don’t know,” she said. “I just do.” And she leaned forward and kissed him then, and he kissed her back and this time he did not let her go, not for a long time.

***********  
They hiked down the mountain in a bit of a daze. The day had turned hot. When they got to the road Fiona said, as casually as she could. “There’s a job at Watford for the fall. A teaching post. I’ve been asked to apply for it.”

Severus looked at her. “And will you?”

“I…..I think so,” she said slowly. “It would mean a lot less travel back and forth to Prague.”

“But that’s wonderful,” he said, and he gave her a rare smile, which made his face look strangely beautiful. “You will apply for it, won’t you?”

“Yes....I, believe I will,” she said. “It will be strange to live in London full time again. I’ve been away a long time.”

“Then we could…..Good,” he said. “I think you should do that.” He took her by the hand and pulled her towards the castle. “Come back to my rooms. You’ve never seen them.”

“Won’t you get in trouble, having a girl in there?” she asked, teasing a little bit.

He snorted. “Minerva would probably throw a party, if she knew.”

“Funny thing,” she said, squeezing his hand, “how many people there are who care about your happiness.”

And they walked hand in hand through the hot sunshine and into the stony coolness of the castle.


	16. A Bad Day For Mr. Crow

The day of the wedding was hot and clear. Aurora woke in her bed with Tabitha purring by her head. The sunlight was pouring into the room turning her bed curtains a bright blue. Pads was calling for them to get up, his voice booming and joyful. Aurora felt a shiver of happiness go through her. She got out of bed and jumped on Leo to wake him up.

Downstairs, Moony was pale though the full moon was still weeks away and he had burnt the porridge. Pads came down with a scrap of tissue stuck to his face where he had cut himself shaving. Moony looked at him and got out his wand.

“Best not to show up at Baz’s with blood on your face,” he remarked as he fixed the cut.

Pads looked startled. “Would he ever…..?”

“No, of course not,” Moony said. “It just makes him nervous.”

Aurora thought that it was strange that someday she would be a vampire, like Baz and the sight of other people’s blood would make her nervous, but today was a happy day and she tucked that thought away in the back of her mind. She ate her burnt porridge dutifully and went back upstairs to get dressed. She had chosen this dress herself. It was soft and silky, in all the deep, jewel tone colors that she loved. Moony had brought home a pair of shiny black shoes with heels to go with it. They weren’t very high heels, but Aurora had never had any shoes like them. She felt very grown up when she put them on and stood before the old enchanted mirror in the nursery. Her blond hair was brushed out and fell loose over her shoulders. She twirled once in the new shoes and felt the skirt of the dress whirl out around her.

“Not bad,” said the mirror. “Considering everything.”

********

When they got to Baz and Simon’s chaos reigned. The kitchen was full of houselves in tiny black t-shirts that said _“Houdini’s House Elves Catering”_ in fancy silver script. Harry, Ron and Dudley were in the back garden setting up rows of white folding chairs. Baz took charge of Moony and Pads, pulling them into the study for a “going over.” The nursery had been designated the girls’ dressing room. Hermione and Ginny were up there changing, along with Aunt Fiona who was brushing Embre’s hair into long auburn corkscrews that hung down her back and bounced when she walked. Leo and Ezra were running about the back garden like maniacs, charged up from all the excitement. Leo had on a black velvet jacket and a red bow tie he kept tugging at until it looked all limp and funny and Uncle Sev had to fix it with his wand.

When it was time for the actual wedding the house filled with people. There was Annie from the bookstore who Aurora had always liked a great deal, and Auntie Andromeda with her daughter, Tonks and her husband, Ted. Professor McGonagall was there with some other Hogwarts professors as well as Ginny’s parents with a whole group of her brothers. Uncle Sev was there, of course, standing close to Aunt Fiona with a severe look on his face. There was a very, very large man called Hagrid, who kept shaking everyone's hand and and saying "I can't believe it!" and blowing his nose into a yellow handkerchief the size of a tablecloth. There were two strange men called Mr. Fell and Mr. Crow. Aurora had never met them before. The man called Mr. Fell seemed so happy that it felt good just to be near him. His friend Mr. Crow, glowered darkly at everyone and did not remove his sunglasses. Aurora got a strange, cold feeling when he turned those mirrored glasses in her direction. She overheard Moony murmuring to Pads that they were clients of his in the rare books department and that he had never invited them, but they must have heard about it, somehow. Pads gave Moony an odd look and said, “Do you think it’s all right?”

“I’ve known Mr. Fell a long time. I can’t imagine him wishing me ill in any way.”

“What about that other bloke?” growled Pads.

“Just his boyfriend. I think he’s harmless enough. Mr. Fell will keep him in line at any rate.”

“I don’t like him," said Pads uneasily. “There’s something odd about him.” And Aurora knew what he meant.

Baz got everyone sitting down and then Leo and Aurora had to walk between the rows of chairs, each one holding a ring. Moony and Pads followed behind with Taina between them. Taina put a hand on the top of both of their heads. He said a blessing in Welsh and kissed them. “You are both my sons,” he said, “This is a day of great joy.” Then Peregrine Bones asked them a bunch of questions about loving each other forever and they each said I do a bunch of times. Which seemed beside the point to Aurora because it was so obvious that they did. Moony was smiling at Pads with the softest look in his brown eyes and Pads’ grey eyes were filled with tears. Aurora and Leo gave them their rings. They put them on each others fingers and they kissed and then everyone threw rice because then they were married.

Afterwards there was lots of lovely food and a quiet skinny boy called Dennis Creevey took photos of everyone. Leo was fascinated by his camera. Dennis was very kind to him and showed him how it worked. He said proudly that the camera had belonged to his brother Colin, who was a hero who had died in the war against Voldemort. He took a picture of Moony and Pads cutting the wedding cake together.

“Send me an extra copy of that one," said Pads. "We’ll send it on to Rita Skeeter.”

***********

  
There was a small nook toward the back of the garden with a stone bench hidden behind a willow bush. It was there that Mr. Fell and Mr. Crow sat, watching the happy crowd as they mingled and drank champagne and ate canapes off trays passed around by the house elves.

“A good day for my side,” said Mr Fell, with great satisfaction.

Mr. Crow sat there and glowered. “Hundreds of years of work,“ he muttered. “Millennia of homophobia. Up in a puff of smoke.” He made a puffing gesture with his hand.

“It does seem that things are really changing for the better,” said Mr. Fell happily. “For once.”

“All those priests and popes and bishops, with their rants against homosexuality. All their sermons. All that guilt. They never knew they were working for my side. It was a great set up. The best. Countless lives ruined. And now, it’s ending. Rainbow flags outside every church. I’ll take the blame for this down below, you know.” Mr Crow looked so gloomy, that Mr. Fell started to feel sorry for him.

“Don’t despair,” he said, taking his old friend’s hand and patting it comfortingly. “Homophobia is still alive and well.”

“You think?” asked Mr. Crow.

“Oh, absolutely,” said Mr Fell. “Britain is full of miserable teenagers afraid to come out. And there’s still Uganda. There’s still Saudi Arabia and Jamaica and lots of other countries where it’s a crime to be gay. Maybe you should go on a trip. There’re lots of places where your side is winning.”

But Mr. Crow could not be cheered. “It’s only a matter of time,” he said glumly staring out at the garden where people were pushing chairs out of the way and starting to dance.

“You’ve done so much,” said Mr Fell, stroking his friend’s hand. “Think of the M-25.”

“I never really got the credit I deserved for that,” replied Mr. Crow.

“Think of those horrible recorded menus you get every time you try to make a call,” said Mr. Fell, soldiering on. “Think of the American Tax Code.”

“Yes, well...” mumbled Mr. Crow. “Those were rather good.” He watched as Sirius and Remus started dancing together, closely, looking into each other’s eyes as if nothing else mattered.

“I never really thought those two would get this far,” he said after he watched them for a while.

“I always knew they would,” said Mr. Fell happily.

“They had a little help from you, didn’t they?” Mr. Crow asked his friend, his voice sharp.

“Just the tiniest of nudges,” admitted Mr. Fell, smiling at them fondly. “They managed most of it completely on their own.” He looked over at Mr. Crow and noticed that little line, on his forehead, just visible above the glasses, that  he got when he was upset. Mr. Fell  felt a cold chill. Love is such a fragile thing, so easily threatened. An alluring stranger, the scent of an old lover, an intriguing business scheme destined for failure - there are a million ways to bung it up. “You wouldn’t….”  Mr. Fell said. He brought Mr. Crow’s hand to his mouth, licked a finger sensually. “Let’s go somewhere more…. private,” he purred, suggestively.

“Don’t…..manage me, Aziraphale,” said the other man sharply.

“I’ll make it worth your while,” said Mr. Fell,  holding his lips in a certain pout that he knew, from centuries of experience, that the other man found irresistible. Out in the garden Remus and Sirius were dancing with the children now, holding Leo and Aurora in their arms and waltzing around in a big, ungainly group. The air vibrated with happiness.

The angel and the demon both stood, and their lips met, in a kiss that made time stand still.

“You’re….. Ineffable” said Mr. Crow throatily, his voice thick with desire, when they broke apart.

“Thank goodness for ineffability,” said Mr. Fell. “Eternity would be such a bore without it.”

***********

It was a good thing the children all had a week together because the next play needed a lot of work. It was, as Anya had promised, set in ancient Egypt. Anya was writing furiously, sitting at her small desk by the window in the nursery with a quill in her hand, her dark hair pulled back from her pale face and her nose smudged with ink. Embre and Aurora were busy making props and costumes. They made crowns out of bleach bottles, cut away to create a classic Egyptian shape. They made robes and loincloths fashioned from old sheets. They made snakes for the snake pit scene out of discarded stockings, painted with fabric paint and stuffed with newspapers. Aurora concentrated hard and was able to get the snakes to wriggle realistically. Harry and Dudley had agreed to be mummies so there were more old sheets to be cut up and painted with dots of red paint to look like blood stains. Uncle Sev and Aunt Fiona had agreed to be Isis and Osiris, and the girls felt that their costumes should be especially beautiful. They spent a lot of time working with beads and fabric paint. The boys were going to be Roman Soldiers and they spent hours on the kitchen floor, making chain mail out of aluminum foil.

 

********  
Simon and Baz took all five children to the boat to meet Moony and Pads when they returned from their trip. There was a lot of activity at Pier Number Nine and Three Quarters, the wizarding wharf. Rough looking seamen were loading cargo onto heavy low lying barges. Large schooners and smaller sailboats were pulling up and passengers were getting off and on, often accompanied by hugs and waving handkerchiefs and shouts of “Bon Voyage.” The air smelled of sea brine and old fish and tar. The seagulls were wheeling and crying incessantly overhead. This creaking old wharf was used by most of the magical folk of Britain for international travel as they could not apparate over water and most abhorred modern trains and planes. The boats were charmed for swift and smooth travel. Most voyagers reached their destination within a day or two, after sleeping in a cozy cabin and getting some sea air. It was a very popular way to travel.

The children were all pressed against the wooden railing, watching for the boat. Leo and Ezra were bouncing up and down with excitement. Aurora felt a strange thrill in her chest as the boat came into view, moving quickly in the afternoon breeze with sails billowing and the ropes making a thwacking sound against the canvas. Moony and Pads were standing on the foredeck looking for them. They started waving excitedly when they saw the children. The boat pulled into the dock with a groan of wood, and they jumped down from the boat onto the dock. Pads tossed Leo into the air, then picked up Aurora and twirled her around in his strong arms. Moony was all pink and freckled. Pads was deeply tanned and his eyes were more crinkly than ever. They both smelled of suntan oil and the sea.

“We missed you two,” said Moony, reaching over to where Pads held Aurora to kiss her and ruffle her hair.

“We missed _you,_ ” said Aurora. “Did you have a nice time?”

“Yes we did,” said Pads. “It was fantastic. But it’s good to be home.”

“Simon and Baz took us to the sea on Saturday,” Aurora reported.

“Did they?” said Moony. “All five of you? That was brave of them.”

“It was fine,” said Baz. “Heather came.”

“Phillip is getting a tooth,” said Aurora. “I felt it.”

“Bit bright for you, wasn’t it?” said Moony, looking at Baz with concern.

“I was fine,” said Baz. “I wore a hat.”

“A big floppy one,” said Anya. “Dad wouldn’t let him take it off.”  Simon grinned and whipped out his mobile. He showed Moony a picture of Baz in a big floppy straw hat and a loose white long sleeved shirt. Moony looked at that picture and laughed out loud, a big Moony belly laugh that brought tears to his eyes and caused Baz to whack him across the shoulders. “Stop,” protested Moony, wiping his eyes. “I’ve got sunburn.”

“We all got sunburn too, and I got bit by a crab,” said Leo, showing them the bandaged toe that poked through his sandal.

“Oh dear,” said Moony, picking him up and looking at his foot. “Does it hurt?”

“I cried,” confessed Leo, burying his soft curls in Moony’ s neck. “But it’s better now.”

“Baz said he was lucky the crab didn’t bite off his whole toe,” said Aurora with a giggle.

“Happy to report that we are returning them to you with all fingers and toes in place,” said Baz.

“And Leo tried the whelks and then he threw up,” reported Aurora.

“Oh. Sorry,” said Moony, looking over at Baz and Simon.

“It was fine,” said Baz. “Simon managed it.”

“All in a day’s work for me," said Simon, shrugging.

They went to a little take away stand by the dock and ordered fish and chips with mayonnaise. After they ate the children played on the shingle below while the adults sat on the deck drinking beer out of plastic cups. They watched the sun set over the water, all glorious gold and purple and orange. The shadows of the children were long and velvety black in the golden light. They were playing some complicated kind of tag and their high voices mixed with the cries of the seagulls as they wheeled overhead. A chill breeze started up. Sirius stood with a shiver and looked out over the water.

“Fall is coming,” he said.

“Yes,” said Remus, standing beside him and watching the sunset fade. He rested a hand on the small of Sirius’ back. The water was changing from azure to purple to black. “Time to go home.”


	17. Kreature

Autumn brought many changes to the family living in the little house in Wales. For one thing, Leo and Aurora started school, at the same primary school where Moony had gone when he was a boy. Moony said none of the teachers were the same, but that the school smelled the same as it always had, of boiled cabbage and chalk. It turned out that Aurora’s teacher, called Mrs Hendricks, had been at school with Moony when he was a boy, except then she was called Lena. The second day two girls approached her and said that they liked her hair and she could be their friend. Their names were Audrey and Grace and Moony had gone to school with Audrey’s parents as well. They played hopscotch and jacks with Aurora in the schoolyard at recess while Leo ran and tumbled in the grass with a gang of tiny boys. Leo came home from school every day with grass stains on his knees which Pads heartily approved of.

Harry moved out of his room in the attic and back to London, to begin his second year of Auror training. He was moving into the old house that Sirius had grown up in which was called Grimmauld place. Ginny, Ron, and a boy called Neville were all going to share it with him. Aurora and Leo went with Harry and Pads a few times to clean and fix it up for them. Grimmauld place was a brilliant place to play. It was a tall skinny house with five stories plus an attic and a really, really creepy basement. There were a million places for hide and seek in that house, and funny little curio cabinets filled with strange things, and a huge dark library with towering rows of books that seemed to whisper and rustle their pages after the children walked by them. Pads warned them to be careful. “We did a pretty thorough decontamination of this place a few years back, when we were using it as headquarters for the Order. But you never know. Don’t go into any of the cabinets without asking me first, and don’t open anything you find in a jar or flask. All right?” When they agreed to these rules he gave them free range of the house. They played hide and seek and found an old box of wooden animals that Pads said had belonged to his brother Regulus. His voice got a funny, dry sound when he said it, but he said they could have the animals if they wanted them, and they used the books in the library to make a zoo for them all to live in. Pads reached behind a cushion in the library sofa and found a stack of wizarding comics he had hidden there as a child, and Leo made Aurora sit there for hours and read the words in the little bubbles aloud to him.

Another change was that Pads started work at the Leaky Cauldron. He worked the lunch shift and got off in time to meet Leo and Aurora when school let out and walk home with them. They would stop at Mrs. Ames' store for an ice cream and Mrs. Ames would give them free sprinkles, “For old times sake,” she said. The store had once belonged to Taina, long ago, and Moony had worked there in his youth. Mrs. Ames had known Pads from when he was a boy come to visit Moony on holidays. They would sit in the sun and eat their ice creams. Some days Pads would tell them funny stories of the customers he’d waited on during the day, and he’d make them laugh. Some days he was quiet and thoughtful and when they got home he’d turn into a dog and they’d take him out into the back pasture and they’d all tumble around in the grass and throw sticks for him to chase.

As the weather got cooler there was lots to do. They picked juicy red apples from the trees at the bottom of the garden and hauled them into the cellar in baskets. Moony made cider and put some in a wooden barrel in the yard to brew. There were potatoes and onions to dig in the garden and big yellow marrows to store in the attic. The hens were starting to lay eggs and the children had to go out in the frosty mornings to gather them. The frozen grass burned their bare feet and they left little melted tracks in their wake. The cold air tingled their noses and the grass in the fields around had all turned goldy yellow and the trees blazed with color.

The cold didn’t agree with Taina, who grew weaker and weaker as the autumn drew on. He had never gotten his strength back after his illness over the summer, and now even moving from his bed to his chair in the parlor left him winded and shaky. Simon came and listened to his heart for a long time with his stethoscope and thumped his chest, and left a bottle of tablets. Madame Pomfrey came from the school and moved her wand over his whole body, very slowly and looked grave. Uncle Sev brought a bottle of strengthening solution which Taina took faithfully, morning and night, and Moony concocted an herbal tea so bitter Aurora did not know how he could drink it but he did, every morning, wincing, his hands trembling as he held the cup. None of this really seemed to help, though, and with Pads away during the day now, the adults decided to have Kreature come to live with them and look after Taina.

Pads had inherited Kreature along with the house on Grimmauld place and he was old, very old, older than Taina but “House elves live a long time, unfortunately,” Pads said grimly. The house elf moved around their cozy home like a wraith, muttering terrible things about all of them under his breath. “Blood traitors, faggots, werewolves and vampires. To think I have come to this. What would my mistress say?” He’d moan and wring his hands and make the upside down W at Moony when he entered a room, and, something Aurora had never seen before, an upside down V directed at herself. It gave her an awful wiggly feeling in her stomach. Kreature liked Taina, however. He called him “A fine old wizarding gentleman,” and cared for him tenderly. He puttered about the kitchen, making puddings and soups to tempt his appetite and would go into a rage if any of the rest of them ate his concoctions. He wore an old tea towel and slept in a nest he made for himself in a corner of the study. Aurora hated him from the minute she met him.

Her complaints fell on deaf ears, unfortunately. “I hate Kreature,” she complained to Pads when they were out in the garden pulling carrots. It was a golden afternoon, unusually warm. The sky was a clear deep blue, the distant hills blazing with red and orange. “Can’t you send him back to Grimmauld Place?”

Pads looked at her for a moment then sat in the grass and pulled her onto his lap. “I don’t like him much either, Pip,” he confessed. “Never have. But Taina needs someone with him now, and he gets on with Kreature.”

“He’s mean, Pads,” said Aurora. “He says mean things about all of us. He’s….” she searched for the word she wanted. “Evil.”

“He’s…….deeply misguided,” said Pads with a shrug. “My family was not a good influence on him. But….. he’s my responsibility now, Pip. D’you understand that? House elves need a purpose, and taking care of Taina is a good job for him. And, frankly, I’d just as soon have the little bastard close by where I can keep an eye on him, rather than in London, making trouble for Harry.”

“Give him clothes,” suggested Aurora.

“It’s not a bad idea,” said Pads thoughtfully, “But it’d probably kill him. He’s not one of those house elves that yearns for freedom.”

“I don’t care,” said Aurora. “He’s mean. I hate him.”

But Pads just sighed and kissed the top of her head and went back to pulling the long orange carrots from the dark loamy soil.

********  
Aurora left notes for Moony on his pillow, and on his desk and pinned to his dressing gown in the wardrobe. They said, “We hate Kreature” and “Kreature must go!!!!!” and “Give him clothes.” All to no avail. Moony and Pads were firm. Kreature was an unpleasant necessity, and the children would just have to get used to him. Leo shrugged and took it in stride, but Kreature’s presence in their house continued to rankle Aurora.

Pads did manage to arrange it so that Kreature was occupied with some unpleasant task for an hour or two after school. He’d have him clean out the basement or peel potatoes or muck out the chicken house. Aurora knew that Pads thought of the ickiest jobs he could think of for Kreature, which gave him a perverse pleasure. This caused Kreature to mutter the most outrageously mean things and give Pads the most ferocious looks but it meant that Aurora could spend some time in Taina’s room with him as she had always done, without Kreature’s glowering presence. She’d curl up beside him on the bed, and read to him, or draw in her notepad, or talk to him and stroke his hand until he fell asleep. Some afternoons she’d fall asleep herself and Pads would come in to fetch her for tea to find her blond head resting peacefully against his grey one.

 

********

One sun drenched afternoon Aurora was walking home from school when she heard a high pitched pinging followed by a snuffling sound and peered around a large oak tree to see Leo hunkered down in a hollow made by two huge roots of the tree. He was throwing acorns against a white rock a little distance away and crying. His face was dirty and streaked with snot and his tears made two clean tracks in the dirt on his cheeks. He had skinned his knee and little bright red beads of blood were welling up in the skinned place and drying in the sun. Crow was on the branch above him croaking anxiously.

Aurora plopped down beside him in a friendly manner and joined him in throwing acorns. When they got bored hitting the rock Aurora made bubbles come out of her fingers and they aimed the acorns at the bubbles as they floated into the azure sky.

“Some big boys said mean things about Moony and Pads,” said Leo at last. “So I kicked them and they pushed me down and ran away.”

“What did they say?” asked Aurora, though she thought she could guess.

“They called them that word.”

“Faggots.”

“Yes.”

Aurora had heard other kids muttering that word at school and she had heard Kreature say it as well. She knew what it meant. Two men, who loved each other, like Moony and Pads. Two dads. Her family.

“I told them Pads was a beater for Gryffindor and won the house cup twice,” said Leo.

“They’re Muggles,” said Aurora quietly. “They don’t know about Quidditch.”

“I told them I was going to turn into a wolf and bite them!”

“That’s secret,” said Aurora. “You shouldn’t tell them that.”

“I’m going to tell Pads,” said Leo. “He’s going to go after them and beat them up!”

“Better tell Moony first,” said Aurora.

“No,” said Leo. “If I tell Moony first he’ll get Pads all calmed down and then we’ll all just have a big chat.”

“Moony first,” said Aurora, and to comfort him, she dug into her bag and found a chocolate frog she had been saving. She used her finger to cut it into two neat halves, as she had seen Uncle Sev do with his wand and handed one half to Leo. The card was Brianna the Beastly which neither of them had but she gave it to Leo just to be nice.

*********

Sirius sat in the bed trying to read but he was bothered and it wasn’t working. Overall his life was going well. He was happier than he had ever been. Some mornings he left the house and he could taste the freedom on the air. He would lift his nose and smell it, like a dog. The children watched him do it and thought it was funny, but the air beyond the front gate, the gate he had not been able to cross for five years, really did smell different to him. He’d walk Aurora and Leo to school, sit in the tiny village cafe and have a coffee and rifle through the Muggle paper, then duck behind a tree and apparate to Diagon Alley and start helping Tom set up for lunch. Most days it was fine, most days he liked it. He liked having a paycheck, for one thing, after years of being supported by Remus. He liked the buzz and chatter of the lunch rush, the clink of dishes, the fizz and pop of drinks being poured, the orders being shouted in the kitchen. Most days people were warm, they came up to him and congratulated him on his good fortune, shook his hand, looked him in the eye. Other days it wasn’t so good. Those were the days when people looked at him surreptitiously, or sneered, or spat. Those days he became Padfoot in the afternoons, and the children threw sticks for him to chase.

Tonight there had been some trouble at school, some trouble over him and Moony being queer. Leo had got in a fight, and got pushed down, and skinned his knee, and the children had lain in wait for Remus to come home after work and told him the whole tale. And Sirius didn’t like it. He hated it in fact. Remus was talking to the kids right now, but Sirius wanted to go out and hit someone.

Leo, in his pajamas, came running in, jumped up on the bed and hurtled into Sirius’ chest with his whole body. “Beat them up Pads,” he demanded and pummeled his fists against Sirius’ sternum.

Sirius pulled him close and kissed the top of his head. “I can’t beat them up, love,” he said.

“Why not?”

“Moony won’t let me.”

“That’s right,” said Remus, entering the room and laying down on the bed with his head on Sirius’ belly. ”No violence.” Aurora followed him in and snuggled up against Remus and he put his arm around her.

“Did you three have a good chat?” said Sirius.

“Yes,” said Leo glumly, “But it didn’t fix anything.”

“Some things are too big to be fixed,” said Aurora sadly.

“Nothing’s really broken, you know,” said Sirius. “We’re here together, and we all love each other. Nothing anybody thinks or says can change that.” And he grabbed a pillow and hit Moony over the head with it.

“Hey,” said Moony, reaching up to grab a pillow and hitting him back. Leo shrieked with pleasure and leapt into the fray and they all four of them had a good old fashioned pillow fight before bed.

Remus and Sirius finally herded them, still flushed and giggling into their beds. Remus turned on the nightlight with his wand and the dragons started their soothing nightly circuit around the walls of the nursery.

“You two are heirs to the house of Black,” Sirius said gruffly as he tucked them up. “You’re made of tough stuff. Don’t let those little bastards get to you.”

**********

There were many pleasures to living in London again, Fiona thought. Among them were the lavender scones at the bakery around the corner from her flat and the excellent curry takeaway on the opposite end of the block. Another one was her weekly runs with her nephew, Baz.

Baz did not really need to exercise. Vampires don’t get fat. And although Baz had pursued various magical methods to modify his vampiric nature he remained as thin as he had been at seventeen. He had taken up running largely to accompany Simon, who tended to gain weight if he wasn’t careful. And Baz had been athletic at school, a serious and devoted football player, and he liked to keep up with it. Now that Fiona was living in London again they met early every Thursday morning at the Albert Bridge and jogged across the river and into Battersea Park.

This particular Thursday was misty and chilly. The fog lay thick over the river and a light rain was misting. Baz found a parking place a few blocks away from the bridge and saw Fiona, standing against the railing, tapping on her phone. She kissed his cheek and they started jogging across the bridge. The street lights were still on, shining eerily in the early morning light, reflecting off the wet pavement.

They chatted amicably as they ran. Baz reported on the children’s progress. They had started at new schools that fall, Anya and Embre at a primary school for children gifted in the arts, Ezra at a progressive creche whose program seemed to consist largely of a huge sandpile and a lot of tempera paint and cardboard. Anya was doing well on violin, and was continuing to play with Baz and his band every few weeks. Embre had started piano and Ezra was lobbying for a drum set. Fiona talked about her new position at Watford, teaching classes on vampirism and other dark creatures, including werewolves. Baz had an obvious personal interest in this topic, and kept as current as he could with the latest research.

Baz hated being a vampire. He always had. He had gone through a lot to become closer to human and it had worked, kind of. He only hunted once a week now, and he tolerated sunlight better. His nose was less keen, less sensitive to the smell of other people’s blood. And he was very encouraged to see that he was showing signs of normal aging, plucking an occasional grey hair from his head, and getting slight crow’s feet around his eyes. He had dreaded more than anything the thought of watching Simon age while he stayed eternally youthful. His great hope was that a method would be discovered to erase the taint of vampirism from the blood completely, for his children, if not for himself.

At the end of their run they stood on the Albert Bridge and looked up the Thames as they caught their breath. Fiona pulled out a cigarette and offered one to Baz.

“I quit,” he said.

“I know, “ she replied, proffering the pack again. His lips twitched in a smile and he took one. She lit both cigarettes and inhaled with a great sigh and leaned back against the railing.

“This is highly counterproductive, you know,” said Baz.

“Yes, but jogging always makes me want a fag.”

“How are things with Severus?” Baz asked, also looking up the river.

“Fine,” said Fiona. “How’s Simon?”

“Don’t change the subject.”

“Can if I want to,” said Fiona.

“Fi,” said Baz. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” said Fiona. “He’s fine. We’re fine. It’s just……..”

“Has he proposed yet?”

“No.”

“Get ready.”

“Baz.”

“Here.”

“Do you think he really will?”

“Definitely. Just look at him. He’s wild about you. He’s just working up his nerve.”

“But Baz....”

“Mmm?”

“I’m not domestic. I’m not……

“He’s going to want children, you know.”

Fiona took a deep drag of her cigarette. “I know,” she said, glumly. “I just don’t know if I can. I’m not….maternal.”

“You’ll be fine.”

“How do you know?”

“If I can do it you can. I’ll lend you Heather. She taught Simon and me everything we know.” Baz paused. “You love him, yeah?”

Fiona looked out over the water and swallowed. She nodded,once. “You know it’s strange,” she said. “But I really do.”

“Sev doesn’t give his heart lightly,” said Baz. “I think if you say yes to him, he won’t let you down.”

“I’ve never been with anyone like him,” Fiona said. “He seems so cold and controlled at first, but under that he’s just all raw feeling.”

"You two should go dancing,” said Baz. “Take him to the Pixie Club.”

Fiona laughed. “I doubt Sev knows how to dance. And I don’t think they have much to do with pixies in their world.”

“That’s true,” said Baz. “The first time I took Moony it blew his mind. Make sure Sev gets a good dose of pixie dust. You’ll have a good time.”

Fiona laughed again and took another drag on her cigarette.

“Although,” he added, inhaling on his cigarette with deep satisfaction, “If you get pregnant, you’ll have to give up smoking.”


	18. The Pixie Club

The next play, _The Mystery of the Pharaoh’s Tomb,_ was held at the little house in Wales on an evening in early October that had turned suddenly chilly. Leaves whipped around the front yard in a brisk breeze. The sky was a clear translucent blue with a rim of pink and orange in the western sky where the sun had set. The moon was a silver crescent hanging low in the sky.

The guests arrived and filled the little cottage. Taina was brought in and set in his chair by the fire in Pads' strong arms. The kitchen was a riot of beads and feathers and cardboard swords. The snakes for the snake pit scene had escaped from the net bag they were stored in and were wriggling over the slates of the kitchen floor, weaving in and around the actor’s feet. Harry and Dudley, in their mummy costumes, kept hiding and jumping out at people, trying to scare them with fearful loud cries of “Aaarghhhh!” which didn’t really scare anyone but added to the general atmosphere of pandemonium.

The production came off relatively smoothly, although Ezra nearly poked Leo’s eye out during the big sword fight scene and Harry’s mummy bandages came loose and fell into his eyes just at the part where he got down on one knee and declared his love to his fellow mummy, Dudley, and they both ended up cracking up and laughing uncontrollably. Remus thought he had never seen anything that made him quite so happy as the sight of Severus Snape, standing next to Fiona Pitch in his Osiris costume. He was draped in a robe made from an old sheet and wore a crown made from a bleach bottle on his head. Dennis Creevey was there, taking pictures of it all. Afterwards there was corn chowder and loaves of crusty brown bread and Remus tapped a new barrel of cyder in the cellar. Everyone crowded around the tiny kitchen and the sitting room and talked about the play and congratulated the actors. There was general agreement that this play had been the best one yet. Dudley, now that he was out of his mummy costume sat there shyly, sitting close to Dennis Creevey and holding his hand. Severus and Fiona changed out of their costumes and left early because they were going to the Pixie Club. Remus grinned when he heard that. Baz had introduced him to the Pixie Club years ago and he had had his share of wild times there.

Severus pulled Remus into the pantry before he left and showed him the ring he had bought, a beautiful wizarding engagement ring of gold with the traditional emerald, set in the middle, flanked by two diamonds. “Lupin, what do you think?” he asked anxiously.

Remus grinned at him. “It’s tonight, then?” he asked.

“If I can get up the nerve,” said Severus.

“It’s a beautiful ring Sev,” said Remus.

Severus just stared at the ring anxiously. “I just…..I’ve never been so nervous about anything in my life.”

“Good luck, Sev,” said Remus fervently. “She'd be a fool to turn you down."

********  
The Pixie Club was dark and sparkling with white fairy lights that were, of course, real fairies. The pixies were circulating in the foyer, drinking tall fizzy drinks from long glasses with elaborate straws and umbrellas. The pixie women all wore dresses of iridescent pastel colors that shimmered and swirled when they walked. The men wore a lot of green and brown. Their shoes curled up at the toes. There were plenty of humans in the club as well. Mages, Severus realized. He knew no one, although Fiona smiled and waved to several people and a group of giggling teenage girls greeted her, a bit drunkenly, as Professor Pitch. The music was hot and loud with an afro beat. The dancers inside leapt and gyrated to it with abandon. Severus glanced inside and hoped he didn’t look as uncomfortable as he felt. Fiona walked confidently to the bar and purchased two glasses of wine and two small vials of sparkling blue powder.

It’s not as if Severus had never danced. But Death Eater dances were formal affairs, all quadrilles and waltzes and tangos, held at Malfoy Manor or Grimmauld Place with wizards and witches in dress robes, the sets called by Cassiopeia Black, an ancient aunt of the Black family, a wizened witch dressed in glittering emeralds who used her wand as a microphone. Those dances were exercises in manners, stiff and formal. He had never gone out with the younger crowd when they visited the clubs of London, to drink and dance wildly and bait Muggles.

Now, sitting at a high table in the chilly foyer, sipping his wine with Fiona, he had absolutely no idea how he was going to manage. If this was her idea of a good time, maybe the whole relationship wasn’t going to work out. He fingered the box in his pocket nervously. He knew he was rushing in, but he couldn’t help it. He was in love with her. Her eyes, her smile, her skin. He wanted to be with her all the time. He had even allowed himself to be dragged on this fool’s outing, when all he really wanted was to be alone with her.

Fiona was unperturbed by the setting, cool and confident. She had been coming to the Pixie Club since she was a teenager. Severus looked very handsome she thought. He was wearing black jeans and a jacket of smooth buttery leather. She suspected Baz had helped him shop, but she didn't mind, somehow.They finished their wine.

“You are going to have fun,” she told him. “Don’t look so worried.” She undid the cork on the little bottle and sprinkled the pixie dust over his head. Then she undid the cork on the second bottle and handed it to him. He dusted her head and shoulders with the contents. She looked up at him, smiling with bits of the blue dust sparkling on her eyelashes. She was completely beautiful. He couldn’t help reaching across the table and kissing her. “Let’s go,” she said. She rose, and took his hand.

It wasn’t like being drunk, exactly. Everything was in focus, even more so than usual. Severus found his nervousness floating away as Fiona led him into the darkened room and out onto the dance floor. His limbs felt fluid, looser somehow. He felt like moving. The music was loud, he could hear the beat in his head and in his feet. Fiona was holding his hands and then they were in the swirl of moving bodies and then they were dancing.

At first it was just the rhythm, just the fact that he could do this, that it wasn’t so very hard after all, that filled him with pleasure. Fiona was by his side, sometimes holding onto him, moving with him, her face soft and joyful, sometimes moving away, into rhythms and movements of her own. The music swirled around them, the beat varied as the songs changed and after a while Severus found himself experimenting with different movements, different expressions, playing with the music and the rhythm and the other dancers on the floor in an elaborate, spontaneous choreography. He felt free and alive and in his body in a way he never quite had before. As the evening wore on the beat got gradually slower until at the end he was holding Fiona close against him, barely moving, the music turned smoky and sensual. The Pixie dust was wearing off, he could feel that wonderful looseness leaving his body. When he was quite sure it was all gone he whispered in her ear, “I’m so in love with you.” She pulled him closer, and that gave him the courage to say, at last, “Will you marry me?” and she smiled up at him, just smiled and smiled and said “I will,” and kissed him on the mouth.

“I have a ring in my pocket,” he said.

And so they made their way, dizzily, out into the chilly fall air that was redolent with the smell of leaves and stood under a lamp while he slipped the ring on her finger.

“It’s beautiful,” she said as the emerald caught the lamplight.

“You said yes,” he said, making sure. He couldn’t quite believe it.

“I did,” she said. “But Sev…” And there was a worried look in her eyes.

“What?” He felt suddenly panicky. How could there be a but?

“I’m….I’m not very domestic.”

“I don’t care about that. Neither am I.”

“I can’t cook.”

“I’ll cook.”

“Do you know how to cook?”

“No,” he said, a bit grimly. “But I know who can teach me.”

And he took her in his arms.

********

It was a low slung, grey October afternoon. The brilliant blaze of color on the distant hills was gone, replaced by subtler bronzes and burgundies of the leaves that remained, and the wind whipped and pulled at them playfully, stripping them from their branches and blowing them around the back garden with a rustling sound. Leo and Aurora were at the kitchen table carving turnip head lanterns in anticipation of Halloween. Harry and Dudley had promised to put on their mummy costumes and take them round the village for trick or treat. Sirius was slicing the last of the green tomatoes from the garden and getting ready to bread and fry them when there was knock on the kitchen door and Severus entered with a gust of wind as though he were a leaf himself, his black cloak billowing around him, his chess set under his arm.

“Uncle Sev!” cried the children and ran to greet him. They were rewarded by a bag of Bertie Bott’s Beans to share, although Uncle Sev had a particularly severe scowl on his face.

“Snape,” said Pads, his arms folded across his chest. He was wearing an apron and his hair was tied back in a bandana, his usual dinner prep attire, though the children laughed at him and told him he looked like a pirate. Right now he looked like an angry pirate, his back stiff against the counter, his grey eyes like granite.

“Black,” said Uncle Sev with a quick nod.

“Remus isn’t home yet,” said Pads.

“Yes, well, actually, it’s you I’ve come to see.”

“Me?”

“Yes.”

“What can I do for you then, Snape?” The two men stood and glowered at each other across the room.

“Damn it Black!” Uncle Sev said with a furious look in his face. “I need to learn to cook!”

A resounding silence followed this statement. Pads just stood there for a long moment, staring at Uncle Sev and then a slow smile started in his eyes and spread to his whole face until he was grinning from ear to ear. “She said yes, then?” he asked and then the strangest thing, Uncle Sev was smiling back at him and Pads was clapping him on the back and whooping and congratulating him and getting down the firewhiskey and Moony came home to the two of them sitting at the kitchen table amid piles of turnip peelings and half finished lanterns, drinking and chatting and planning a series of cookery lessons while the children played at their feet and the green tomatoes sat unfried and forgotten on the counter.


	19. Raven  Post

After Halloween, as the weather turned dark and cold, Taina took a turn for the worse. His cough, which had never really gone away, got harsher. His breathing became more laboured. He had almost completely stopped eating, and he slept most of the time. Aurora spent all the time she could in his room, drawing, or playing quietly in a corner with her mice and unicorns, accompanied by the sound of his raggedy breathing. Even the presence of Kreature, with his frequent half whispered comments about vampire girls and bloodsuckers could not deter her. Pads was concerned, and tried to distract her and draw her out to another part of the house, but Moony said to let her be, if that was what she wanted, and that he saw no harm in her showing her love for Taina by being close to the dying man. Indigo likewise rarely left his side and Tabitha followed Aurora wherever she went so the cats kept her company in the long dark afternoons and Moony would join her as soon as he got home from work. He’d sit by Taina’s side until bedtime, dry eyed, holding his hand, lost in thought.

One afternoon Aurora came up the stairs to find Pads standing in the little alcove where the stairs made a turn, looking out the window at the bare trees. His shoulders were shaking. He turned his face to her as she made her way up the stairs and she saw that he was crying. She put her arms up and he picked her up in a tight hug. She buried her head in his neck, smelling his sharp, clean, comforting smell. “Don’t cry Pads,” she said.

“Sorry Pip,” he breathed.

“Are you feeling sad about Taina?"

He nodded. “Me too,” she said.

He held her and they both looked out the window at the chilly bleak landscape. The grass in the fields had bleached to pale yellow, spreading to the smoky blue hills in the distance. The bare branches of the trees were black against the pale, colorless sky. “You’re getting too big to hold like this,” he said, kissing the top of her blond head.

“You love Taina, even though he’s not your dad,” she observed. 

“Yes,” he said, looking out at the mountains, “Well, you know, my own dad wasn’t that nice to me. We didn’t get along.”

“Why not?”

Pads sighed. “So many reasons. I was never good enough for him. And he hated it that I was queer.”

“How did he know?”

“Well, I think for a long time he just kind of suspected. And I tried really hard to be straight, to try to please him. Then Moony and I got together and he didn’t like that at all. And we were on opposite sides in the war. There was no reconciling after that. He died while I was in Azkaban. He never even tried to see me in there….never tried to help me, get at the truth of the matter. He knew I was no Death Eater…...” Pads' voice trailed off.

“He doesn’t sound very nice.”

Pads shrugged. “Taina was different. Right from the beginning he treated me like a son. He loved it when we were all in school and we used to come around. Moony’s Mum didn’t really like it. She liked the quiet life, you know. But Taina would put on a big pot of soup, get out the sleeping bags, make a bonfire in the backyard, show us round the garden. I think he knew how important it was to Moony, to have a group of friends like that. And he’d do anything for Moony. And later, when I got out of prison… well, it was dangerous , you know, he could have gone to Azkaban himself for hiding me, but he just welcomed me, fed me, worked with me in the garden. He was glad I was back, for Moony’s sake. He was glad we were together again. And I was…… well I’m better now, but I was a wreck… nervous, depressed, angry. He just spent every day with me, out in that garden, showing me about the plants, how to make food grow from the soil. We didn’t talk that much, but it was peace, it was safety, it was……..good and…….I love him, Aurora.” Pads wiped his eyes again. “It makes me sad to see him like this.”

“You’re a good dad,” said Aurora, kissing his cheek.

He smiled at her then, through his tears. “You really think so, Pip?”

She nodded solemnly.

“Well, you’re a good daughter,” he said. “And….. “ His mind flashed to the chill of his childhood home, his father’s cold, disapproving stare, the aching aloneness and anger he had felt when they cut him off for good. “And I don’t want to be like my dad.”

“You’re not,” she said. And she slipped out of his arms and down the stairs to go sit with Taina again.

 ********

Downstairs Taina was awake. He turned to Aurora when she entered and his gaunt face lit up with a smile.

“Aurora,” he said, his voice was weak but clear, “My beautiful grand daughter.” He seemed more awake than he had in days.

"Taina,” she said. She ran over and held both his hands. “Are you feeling better?”

“I feel better seeing you,” he said.

“Are you afraid, Taina?” she asked.

He looked into her eyes for a long moment. His eyes were like Moony’s, warm and brown. “No,” he said at last. “I’ve had a good life. I’m ready.”

“I’m going to miss you,” she said. Her throat felt tight. “I love you, Taina.”

“Oh, little one, I love you,” he said. “And I’ll be with you always, in your heart. That love doesn’t die. It’s inside you, and some day you’ll pass it on, to your own children and grandchildren. And I’ll be waiting for you, beyond the veil. Someday, we’ll all be together again.”

“But Taina,” she said.

“What my dear?”

“I’m….. I was bitten. By the bad man. I’m like him.” It was her worst fear, but she had to tell him.

“No,” he said. “No. You are not like him. Never think that, love. You are brave and strong and good and when the change comes it won’t change that. You’ll know how to be safe and not hurt anyone. Remus will show you how. He has never hurt anyone, Aurora. And neither will you.”

“How do you know, Taina?”

“I just do, my dear.” He stroked her small warm hand with his thin papery one. “I know your heart. Now climb up here and sing me a song, and be happy, because today we are together.”

 ***********

Remus and Sirius sat up with Romulus the night that his ragged breathing became so bad that they could hear it across the room, the night he stopped opening his eyes and looking when they opened the door, the night he stopped squeezing back when they held his hand.

It was a long night. Remus tried to get Sirius to go to bed, but he wouldn’t leave. Remus sang for a long time, in a low voice, the old Welsh lullabies that Rom had sung to him as a child, that he still sung to his own kids when they were lonely or frightened or couldn’t sleep. Sirius took Rom’s cold hands in his big warm ones and rubbed them, but mostly, they just sat quietly beside the bed, holding his hand. Rom’s breathing got gradually louder and more uneven. About four in the morning, Remus started awake. He and Sirius had both dozed off, their heads leaning against each other. The room was quiet. His father gave one final, sighing gasp and lay still, and Remus felt his soul leave his body and go drifting up towards the ceiling and away from them. Remus leaned forward and closed his father’s eyes and kissed him. He felt the tears burning in his eyes and turned to put his head on Sirius’ shoulder as Sirius put his arms around him and gathered him close.

“I’m glad you’re here with me Sirius,” he whispered into his shoulder.

“Always, love,” said Sirius.

 ********

The funeral was held in the stone chapel in the village, as so many of the people there had loved and known Romulus. It was a cold November day, the clouds in the distance were heavy with the threat of snow. The wizarding friends apparated in dressed in subdued Muggle clothing, and Andromeda and Severus went about and applied a glamour here or there when needed. Remus sat in the front pew. Aurora was beside him, wide eyed and solemn on his left, with Sirius on his right. Leo sat on Sirius’ lap, and beside them sat Harry, his arm around Ginny. It was chilly in the chapel and he put an arm protectively around Aurora’s shoulders as she sat up very straight, wrapped in a black cloak, her fine blond hair held back with a black ribbon. He could feel Sirius, warm and solid beside him and he had never been quite so glad to have his little family with him.

They buried Romulus Lupin in the small village graveyard beside his wife. Afterwards there was a funeral tea back at the cottage, arranged by Andromeda and served up by Kreature, who, under her icy glare, had put on a clean tea towel and managed to keep his disparaging comments to himself. The children were let loose into the back garden where they ran and whooped and chased the few snowflakes that were starting to fall from the sky.

Remus went upstairs to change and found himself at the nursery window, staring out at the frosty yard where the children ran and shrieked. They were all hatless. Aurora’s long blond hair was flying behind her as she ran, Leo’s black curls were bouncing, Anya’s smooth black cap was trimmed short and neat, Embre’s bronze curls were tumbling in all directions and Ezra’s blond thatch stood straight up. After a few minutes Ginny came outside to join them and they all started throwing a quaffle around.

 _They are beautiful_ , Remus thought, _and they are ours_. He thought about how grown up they had acted at the funeral and how proud his dad would have been of them and the grief he had been holding at bay all day, as he shook hands and thanked people for their kind words, hit him hard and low and fast. He started to move away from the window and the room spun. He was overcome by a wave of nausea. The moon was tomorrow night, he’d barely given any mind to the calendar with everything else that had been going on, but now it seemed to hit him all at once. He thought of all the moons, all the moons of his life where his dad had been there for him, the ultimate haven, steady and loving, through all his pitfalls and mistakes, and felt a howling emptiness. He staggered into the bathroom to vomit.

Some time later he heard Sirius on the stairs and his voice calling, low and concerned, “Moony, you all right?” He pushed open the bathroom door and peered in to find Remus sitting on the floor next to the toilet, unable to get up. “Oh, my love,” Sirius said softly. 

“Up you get, there we go, it’ll be all right,” he said as he pulled Remus up and took him in his arms. Remus sank against his shoulder, and all the tears that had been building for weeks and weeks as he had watched his father die let loose. He cried in big hiccuping sobs that shook his whole body and made his nose run. Sirius just held him and stroked his back and let him cry.

“I didn’t think it would hurt this much,” Remus gasped.

“There, there,” said Sirius, “Of course it does.”

“I thought I was ready. I thought it was his time. I thought I wouldn’t mind so much.”

“I know.”

“I thought I had it under control.”

“You always do,” said Sirius, smiling at him.

“He’s really gone, Pads.”

“I know.”

“Just like… like Lily and James.”

“Yes.”

“You weren’t with me then.”

“No, but I’m here now.”

“I’d be lost without you Pads”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“It’s just us now.”

“It’s all right to mourn, Moony.”

“Is it?”

“Yes. C’mon let’s get you into bed.”

“But the neighbors, the people…..” Remus made a vague gesture towards the stairs and then wiped his nose on his sleeve.

“They’ll be all right. I’ll go back down in a bit and make your excuses. You look terrible. You need to lie down.”

Sirius wiped his face and made him rinse his mouth and get into bed. Remus protested weakly, but he was clearly in no condition to go back downstairs. He lay on his side, face to the wall, shoulders shaking, and Sirius couldn’t leave him like that, in spite of the house full of people. He sat down on the bed and stroked his back, feeling torn, when he heard a soft step on the stair and Harry’s face peered around the door.

 “Come on in, Harry,” said Sirius.

 “All right Sirius?” said Harry.

 “Moony is having a bad moment,” said Sirius. Remus rolled over and looked at Harry owlishly.

“Hiya Harry,” he said, his eyes red rimmed. “Sorry.”

“No,” said Harry, running his hand through his black hair in a gesture that made him look just like James in a way that pierced Sirius to the heart. “It’s fine. Take your time, you two.” He straightened his shoulders. He had reached his full height a few years ago, but now Sirius noticed how much he had filled in. He looked like an adult, suddenly. “Take as much time as you need. I’m the oldest son,” he said with a grin. “I’ll handle the well wishers.” And he was gone with a click of the door as he shut it behind him.

********

Late that night a storm blew up and a cold wind buffeted the little house. All the guests had gone home. The kitchen was full of food, enough for weeks, Aurora thought. They gathered by the fire in the sitting room with mugs of hot cocoa. Ginny and Harry sat together in the easy chair by the fire, their arms around each other. Moony was pale, wrapped in a shawl, and he was sipping his cocoa slowly. Pads had his arm protectively around him. Aurora was snuggled close against his other side and he seemed to take comfort from her warmth. She was getting drowsy, and her eyelids were starting to drift downwards. Leo had fallen asleep in the afternoon, worn out from all the excitement, and then had awoken, crying for Taina, and was now snuggled in Pads’ lap. Kreature was curled on the hearth with the two cats, snoring softly with a whistling sound through his open mouth. Crow was perched protectively on the back of the sofa behind Leo. No one was talking much, but the fire filled the room with a cozy crackling sound and the warm light of the flames played over all of them as they sat there, each thinking their own thoughts.

A sharp rapping at the window startled them all. Harry rose to open it and a large, coal black raven, its feathers buffeted from the wind, flapped in and cawed loudly and dropped an envelope on Moony’s lap. He flew over to the mantel and settled there with another loud caw. Crow ruffled his feathers and gave the intruder a beady glare.

“Leo, why don’t you go to the kitchen and get him something to eat,” said Moony turning the envelope over in his hands curiously. It was a large cream colored envelope with spidery silver handwriting on it and a large blue wax seal at the back.

“It’s from Beauxbatons,” said Moony, looking at the seal, two crossed wands each emitting 3 stars. Leo came back with a piece a cheese and a crust of bread for the raven who gobbled the food appreciatively and started preening its feathers. Leo quietly slipped a piece of cheese to Crow as well.

“Scram,” Crow croaked to the large raven on the mantel.

“Open it, all ready,” said Pads.

Moony took out his wand and neatly slit the top of the envelope. Inside was a single cream colored piece of paper with more of the silvery handwriting. Moony read it quickly, then handed it wordlessly to Pads.

“It’s from Madame Maxime,” Pads said, after a moment,looking up at all of them. “She wants to offer Moony a job.”


	20. Red Van

“Yes”

 “No”

 “Yes.”

 “No.”

 Sirius was sitting on the floor of the sitting room, up to his elbows in a mountain of clean clothes which he was folding and sorting into piles. He looked at Remus with exasperation. “Why in bloody hell not?”

 Remus was sitting on the sofa wrapped in a wooly shawl. His legs were tucked under him and he was petting Indigo absently. The full moon was due that night and he looked haggard.

 “I don’t know why not!” he said testily. “I’m nervous about it, all right? I haven’t taught in years.”

 “It’s a dream job,” said Sirius, folding one of Aurora’s vests. “Research, teaching, maybe some travel. Everything you’ve always wanted.”

 “I know,” said Remus, miserably. “But…. we’re settled here. I feel as if life is going pretty well. It would be a huge upheaval.”

 “Who fucking cares?” said Sirius. “You’d be stupid to pass this up.” He folded a sweatshirt with a logo of Thomas the train and added it to a pile of Leo’s things. He threw an assortment of socks to Remus. “Here match these up while you’re sitting there.”

 “The kids are settled in school. They have their friends,” said Remus as he started sorting through the socks

 “They’re kids. They’ll make new friends.”

 “They don’t speak French.”

“Good for them to learn a second language.”

 “And there’s Harry.”

 “Harry’s of age. He’s got school, he’s got Ginny. He doesn’t really need us anymore.”

 “There’s our friends…”

 “We’ll still see our friends. France isn’t the moon. Baz and Simon will be thrilled to have an excuse to go there. We probably won’t be able to get rid of them.”

 “There’s Sev.”

 “Last I checked Sev was an adult, Remus. And in case you hadn’t noticed, he’s pretty busy these days with Fiona.”

 Sirius stood and stretched. He took out his wand and magicked his tidy piles of laundry into the basket. With a flick of his wand he sent the full basket sailing out of the sitting room and up the stairs. He glanced at the clock ticking on the mantel. “We’ll talk about this after the moon,” he said. He looked Remus over critically. “You need some food and a nap before moonrise. I don’t like the look of you. Is Sev bringing your potion round?”

 “About three, he said.”

 “Good,” said Sirius. “The moon gets up early this time of year. I’ll collect the kids from school and take them directly to Baz and Simon’s, then you and I can go up to the shed together.” He took Remus by the hand and pulled him to his feet. He put his arms around his waist and held him close and nuzzled his neck. “How about a quick shag before lunch?” he said, breathing in Remus’ smell, the animal tang of the wolf stronger than usual today under the clean smell of the plain soap he used. “It’s been a while.”

 Remus relaxed into his embrace. “We’ve been busy,” he said, as he traced the snake tattoo twining up Sirius’ forearm with a finger.

 Sirius kissed him. “I love you, you idiot.”

 “I know.”

 ********

 It was a beautiful moon, the Frost Moon, as Sirius explained to the children as he dropped them off. The world was a wonderland of sparkling ice crystals and frozen mist as the wolf and the dog ran and frolicked. By morning, when they were human again, grey clouds had rolled in and a light snow had started falling. Sirius tucked Remus into bed, and made himself a cup of tea in the quiet kitchen. The Raven from Beauxbatons was perched on top of the coldbox and was eyeing him beadily, though whether he wanted food or a reply to his letter, Sirius was not sure. He tossed him a crust of bread and the bird gobbled it greedily, but did not stop his persistent stare.

 Sirius sipped his tea. He felt the absence of Romulus acutely. Ever since he had come to live here, Rom had been a quiet steady presence. On this grey chilly morning the house felt sad and lonely without him. Sirius sighed and went out into the lightly falling snow to the chickens.

The hens were clustered under the heat lamp, their feathers fluffed against the cold, burbling softly to each other. They eyed him accusatorily as he fed them and gathered the eggs, as though the cold weather was an exceptionally bad idea of his invention. They would not go out into the frozen yard to peck at the grain he scattered for them. Sirius returned to the kitchen and set the eggs on the counter, then he apparated to London to collect the children and bring them to school.

When he returned the world was turning white and he had to knock the snow off his boots as he entered the kitchen. To his surprise, Remus was sitting up at the kitchen table, pale and drawn, nursing a cup of tea. He was watching the raven on top of the cold box warily.

 “You should be in bed,” said Sirius sharply.

 “Can’t sleep,” said Remus. “Not with this wretched bird lurking down here, waiting for an answer.”

 Sirius busied himself with eggs and toast. “Hungry?” he asked.

 “No,” said Remus. “Not yet.”

 Sirius buttered the toast.“Here,” he said, handing a slice to Remus. “If you’re up you should eat.” Remus took a desultory bite of the toast, then shuddered and laid it aside. Sirius sat down at the table with a plate of eggs and started grinding pepper on them.

 “Sirius,” said Remus in a low voice.

 "Yes?” said Sirius, starting to eat.

 Remus took a deep breath in. “I really do want this,” he said quietly.

 “I know that. Glad you’re finally owning up to it.” He tapped the large teapot that was sitting in the center of the table with his wand and steam came out. He poured himself a cup. “It’s a lucky break, Moony, an opportunity. You shouldn’t let it go by. But.... here's the thing,” he said slowly, stirring sugar into his tea.

 “Yes?”

 “Perhaps it would be good for me as well.”

 Remus looked at him curiously. “What do you mean?”

Sirius ran his hand through his hair. “Well…. You know , every morning I walk through that front gate and I thank Merlin that I’m a free man. And every night I get into bed beside you and I feel like the luckiest person on earth. But… well, I don’t like to worry you, but it isn’t that easy, being out in the world. Sometimes, it’s bloody hard. I walk down Diagon Alley and half the people I see know who I am. And they all have an opinion, don’t they? Some think it’s great that my name’s been cleared, that I’m a gay man married to a werewolf. Some hate me because they think I’m a Death Eater that used my money and family name to walk free. But whatever they think, it’s fucking wearing, isn’t it? And it worries the kids as well. They notice all the comments, the wards, even if they don’t say anything.”

 “What are you getting at, Sirius?”

 “What I’m getting at is, well, it might be good for us to get out of Britain for a while, to be some place where we were a little little less well known, a little more… I dunno…. anonymous.”

 “I……” Remus started, but Sirius held up his hand to silence him. “There’s more,” Sirius said, blowing on his tea. “Hear me out. I….I want to open a pub.”

 “A pub?” Remus looked at him as if he had just said he wanted to fly to Mars.

 “I…….Look Moony," Sirius said, and he suddenly looked shy. “I haven’t really done that much with my life. I’ve been a soldier, a prisoner, a stay at home dad, a bartender. I’m not really qualified for anything….”

 “Those are important things,” said Remus.

 “Yeah,” said Sirius with a self deprecating smile. “I can duel, I can change a nappy, I can mix a drink and I’m mean with a homemade tattoo gun, but none of those are really marketable skills. And….and I’m tired of living off of you. It isn’t fair. And I don't want to work for Tom forever. And I don’t want to live off the bloody house of Black either. I want to earn my own way.”

 “You could work in a day care,” said Remus doubtfully.

 “Yeah, or a tattoo parlor,” said Sirius ruefully. “ But….. I know food, and I know people. I…… every day at the Leaky Cauldron I see how Tom does things and……. Well, I’m full of ideas for how he could spruce things up, make things better, more up to date. Use more, you know, local ingredients, more authentic recipes. I’m always writing menus in my head…….thinking up drink specials… I ...I think if I had my own place, I could make a go of it."

 “A pub?” said Remus again.

 “I think it’s something I’d be good at,” Sirius said shyly, and Remus was reminded, acutely, of a thirteen year old Sirius on the eve of quidditch tryouts.

 “We have the money to buy a place and get started,” said Sirius.

 “We’re saving that.”

 “It’d be an investment,” said Sirius, urgently. “If things go well, we’ll make it back and more. And the thing is…..If we move to France, it’d be a fresh start, wouldn’t it? I could just be a simple restaurant owner, without all that other baggage.” He looked at Remus hopefully. The raven let out a harsh croak from the top of the cold box.

 “This is what you want?”

 “Yes.”

 “Really?”

 “Really.”

 “You’re not just saying this to get me to take the job?”

 “No.”

 Remus looked at Sirius and a slow kindle of excitement was starting in his brown eyes. It spread to his whole face until he was smiling broadly, the drawn look gone.

 “I think you’d be good at it too,” he said at last. “It’s just so…..”

 “So what, Moony?”

 “Well, it’s just that…...”

 “Yes?” There was a smile lurking in Sirius’ grey eyes. "Spit it out."

 “It’s just so bloody gay!”

 And Sirius grinned back at him. He folded his arms and leaned back against the kitchen counter, with a satisfied look on his face. “You know Moony,” he said thoughtfully. “It’s taken me a long time to accept who I am. Half a lifetime really. But I think I’m finally there.”

 “Fetch some parchment and a quill,” said Remus. “I’ll write to Madame Maxime right now.”

 ***********

 So it was that as Christmas drew near they started making plans for the move to France. Moony and Pads left for three days on a trip, while Harry and Ginny came to stay with the children. When they returned, excited and happy, they said that Moony had signed a contract to teach at Beauxbatons and do research at the famous _Institute de Lycanthrope_ in Paris. Pads had found an old stone mill, not far from the school and he was going to buy it and turn it into a restaurant. They were all going to live in the upstairs. Kreature outright refused to move to France, and Pads said that was fine, he could stay in the little house in Wales and look after the chickens. He hired two free house elves, a married couple named Hunky and Dory to come to France with them and help start up his pub. When they appeared in the kitchen one afternoon to help pack up, Kreature retreated to the attic with a furious “Harumph! “ and could not be coaxed out for anything.

 Books on France appeared in the house, and maps, and a series of French lessons on cassettes that the children listened to on an old player that Moony dislodged from the attic and dusted off. The woman who narrated the lessons was very, very cheerful, annoyingly cheerful, but the songs were catchy and everyone in the family found themselves singing them at odd moments. Pads, with the assistance of Hunky and Dory, went into a frenzy of cooking, trying to work out his menu before the restaurant opened. Moony surrounded himself with large dusty books and grimoires and piles of parchment every evening, preparing for teach his classes and he was so distracted that he agreed, rather absently, that the children could get real broomsticks for Christmas if they must.

 Uncle Sev came every Monday afternoon for cookery lessons with Pads. Aunt Fiona often joined them for supper and they would all crowd together around the table in the warm kitchen and eat the delicious food that had been prepared for them by Pads and Uncle Sev. Uncle Sev never smiled during these meals, and as usual, he said little, but his face looked different these days, Aurora thought, more relaxed, happier. He hadn’t been able to work himself up into a proper glower since the afternoon he had come round and asked Pads to teach him to cook. They talked about plans for the move to France and for the wedding which was going to be New Year’s Day at Uncle Sev’s house, called Spinners End, which Aurora and Leo had never seen. On these Monday evenings the sadness that had fallen on the little house since Taina had died lessened a little, and the rooms seemed less empty and quiet.

 After supper Aunt Fiona and Moony would do the washing up, then Aunt Fiona would sit by the fire and mark her students’ papers or help Moony with his lesson plans. Uncle Sev would give Leo a chess lesson and then challenge Aurora to a game. Aurora never won these games but she didn’t mind. She knew that Uncle Sev would never lose to her on purpose like most grown ups would, and she found this strangely comforting. And although she continued to support Leo in their campaign for Christmas broomsticks, she secretly wished more than anything for a chess set of her own.

 Some times, during the long cold December afternoons, Aurora hid herself away in the study and hunkered down in Taina’s old bed. She was knitting a muffler for Pads striped in red and gold for Gryffindor and she would work on it and think about Taina and how he had taught her to knit so patiently. Harry and Ginny took her Christmas shopping again in Hogsmeade, and she bought a fancy quill for Moony to use in his new job. They went into Zonko’s and she bought a spray can of air that smelled like farts for Leo and knew he would be happy.

 Winter came early that year and the house and fields were all ready buried in a layer of white snow. They went out in the woods and cut a tree and decorated the house with silver stars and paper chains. The house was sparkling with silver and warm with little lights and sometimes they were happy and sometimes they missed Taina and were sad. They had Christmas Eve with Harry and Ginny and the next morning the children unwrapped two brand new Cleansweep Juniors. They took them out and rode them around in the freezing cold until their teeth were chattering and their gloved fingers felt frozen to the broom handles and Moony had to cast a warming charm to get them to stop shivering.

 There were other gifts under the tree as well, new clothes and books, a beautiful colored pencil set with deep rich colors and a thick pad of snowy white paper. Leo got a large set of Lego bricks that he had been eyeing hungrily in the Muggle variety shop in the village for weeks. Harry and Ginny got them Gryffindor sweatshirts and pennants and promised to take them to a match. When Aurora worried aloud that they were moving to France and how could they manage to get to a Hogwarts quidditch match, Harry reassured her that it would just give them a reason to come and visit soon. Pads got Moony a beautiful leather briefcase with a brass nameplate with _Professor R.J. Lupin_ stamped on it, and Moony was so happy he had to get up and leave the room for a moment.

 The best gifts (aside from the broomsticks) came predictably from Uncle Sev. Leo got a broomstick servicing kit, and he and Harry immediately set to work polishing his broomstick’s handle and trimming the straws. Aurora got her own wizarding chess set, with dragons for the black pieces unicorns for the white. They rustled gently in their velvet lined box when Aurora opened it. When she picked up the Unicorn queen, a tiny puff of silvery sparkles drifted from her silky mane, accompanied by an unearthly tinkle of music. She picked up the dragon queen who flared her nostrils and breathed out a tiny flame.

 Three days after Christmas there was a going away party at the bookstore that took Moony totally by surprise. Annie had arranged the whole thing. When Remus announced he had to work late to go over his accounts with Mr. Goldstein, Leo and Aurora had to run upstairs and hide in the old wardrobe so they wouldn’t give the secret away. Baz and Simon were there with their kids, and Uncle Sev and Fiona, and Harry with Ginny. Mr Fell was there, although Annie swore later that she had not invited him. He seemed to have found out about it somehow on his own.

 “The children are growing,” observed Mr. Fell as he shook Remus’ hand warmly.

 “Like weeds,” agreed Remus. He got that strange feeling of safety and comfort that he always experienced when he was with Mr. Fell, as if nothing truly bad could ever happen to him.

 “You have a lovely family,” said Mr. Fell happily. “You should be proud.”

 “Thank you,” said Remus. “I like them. Couldn’t Mr. Crow come?”

 “Oh, he’s away on business,” said Mr Fell, a slight frown darkening his features. “Uganda, or perhaps Saudi Arabia by now. He had several stops planned. He’s a busy man, Mr. Crow. Always lots to do. He sends his best, of course.”

 “What is it he does, exactly?” asked Remus. He had been wondering about this for a while, but just at that moment Trevor from sales clapped him on the back and started congratulating him on his new job, and when Remus turned around Mr. Fell had disappeared.

 *********

 Uncle Sev and Aunt Fiona were married on New Year’s day at Uncle Sev’s tall narrow house at Spinner’s End. They were going to fix up that house and live there. Aurora, Anya and Embre all wore white dresses and scattered rose petals. Aunt Fiona was beautiful in a cream colored dress with flowers in her shiny black hair and that day Uncle Sev just smiled and smiled at her.

 After the wedding they started packing up to leave in earnest. It turned out that Moony knew how to drive a Muggle car and he rented a red van to take them and their luggage to France. He hired a regular Muggle moving company to move the furniture and crates of books and dishes. The moving men were strong and young with big muscles in their arms and deep country accents. Leo followed them around all day and watched in fascination as they worked with handcarts and straps to load their lorry.

 Their last night in their little house where they had been so happy they camped out around the fire in the empty sitting room and roasted sausages on sticks, as all the dishes were packed. They slept in front of the fireplace in the squashy purple sleeping bags that Remus and Sirius had nicked from Hogwarts when they were still at school. Aurora was excited to be moving to France, especially because Moony and Pads were excited, but she felt sad too. It was only a little over a year ago that she had come to live in this house. She had found love here, and acceptance; she had found her family. In this house Taina had taught her to read and add and how to sing the old Welsh songs. He had told her that he knew her heart and that it was good. She thought about how she would never see him again and her chest ached.

 Moony had promised that they would all be together for a very long time, until Aurora and Leo were grown and ready to take care of themselves, like Harry was now. Wherever they were together, that was home, Moony said. Aurora snuggled down in her sleeping bag next to Leo. Tabitha was purring at her feet. She clutched her red dragon close. The sitting room was strange without its furniture, the fire casting eerie shadows in the empty corners. Crow was asleep on the mantle with his head tucked under his wing. Moony and Pads were talking in low voices in their own sleeping bags across the room. Aurora didn’t think she would be able to sleep but then she opened her eyes and it was morning.

 Breakfast was instant oatmeal in paper cups. It was a tasteless and gummy affair, as the sugar and cinnamon were all ready packed. Moony and Pads spent a lot of time loading the van with the remainder of their possessions which seemed like more, somehow, than anyone had thought there would be. Moony was using his wand to shrink things down to fit in the tight space and he kept glancing at his watch as they wanted to be at the car ferry by noon. Pads was cursing quietly under his breath.

 In the midst of this chaos Uncle Sev appeared at the gate, a severe scowl on his face, a huge bag of Honeydukes sweets clutched in his hand. The children ran to him up the snowy path and he handed the bag to Aurora with a grimace. “One of my NEWT students is teaching my second year potions class right now, “ he announced grumpily.

 Moony reached behind Aurora and plucked the bag of sweets neatly from her hand. “I’d best dole these out gradually, or the children’ll be sick before we get across the channel.” he said. “Come along Leo, let’s find a safe place for these in the van.”

 Uncle Sev and Aurora stood in the snowy yard and looked at each other.

 “Thank you for my chess set, Uncle Sev,” said Aurora. “I really like it.”

 “I received your thank you letter,” said Uncle Sev. “That was properly done.”

 “Thank you,” said Aurora. And then she couldn’t stand it anymore and ran to him and threw her arms around his waist. Her head just came up to his stomach. “I’m going to miss you Uncle Sev,” she said, her throat tight and aching.

 He knelt down in the snow and hugged her back and when he looked up his eyes were bright and shining, and he wiped the back of his hand across them. “You must practice your chess with Lupin,” he said in a strange, tight voice. “He is a reasonably good player. I shall visit in the spring to look for plants and herbs with him and I expect improvement.”

 “All right,” she agreed.

 “Be a good girl and listen to Lupin and Black. They love you and they will do anything to ensure your safety and happiness.”

 “Yes, Uncle Sev,” she said solemnly.

 “If anything troubles you, you can owl me, all right?”

 “Okay,” she whispered.

 “All right then,” he said and he treated her to one of his rare smiles.

 “Uncle Sev?”

 “Yes?”

 “Are you and Aunt Fiona going to have a baby now?”

 He suddenly looked embarrassed. “Possibly,” he said. “It is…….possible. A possibility.”

 “When?” she asked.

 “Maybe in the summer,” he said. He looked very uncomfortable. “At the end of the summer. In August. But don’t tell anyone. Not yet.”

 “All right,” she said, and she hugged him again. “Goodbye, Uncle Sev. I love you.”

 They went to find Moony and Pads who were finishing loading the van. Uncle Sev hugged Moony and they just stood there and looked at each other for a long moment and then turned away and didn’t say goodbye. Uncle Sev reached into his robes and handed a packet wrapped in brown paper to Pads. “Wolfsbane,” he said. “For the potion. The instructions for brewing it are inside.” There was an awkward pause. “Farewell, Black,” said Uncle Sev at last. “Take care of Lupin. He is my best friend.” Then he picked up Leo in a brief, tight hug. Leo’s skinny arms went around Uncle Sev’s neck and he buried his dark curls in Uncle Sev’s chest. Uncle Sev kissed the top of his head, then set him down. He wiped the back of his hand across his eyes once again. He walked up the front walk and out the gate, past the wards that were still in place, the wards that Moony had set so many years ago when Pads first came to live there. Uncle Sev’s back was very straight and his black robes stood out starkly against the dirty white snow in the road. He waved his wand and with a pop of apparition he was gone.

*********

They walked through the little house one last time. It had been rented to Heather and she was planning to move in later that week with Jonas and baby Phillip. The empty rooms no longer seemed lonely, but rather seemed to rustle slightly with anticipation, as if waiting for a new family to start their lives there. In the nursery the enchanted mirror was snuffling softly to itself and the glass was misted with moisture. A lone acorn had been left in a corner on the floor. Aurora held out her hand and the acorn came flying through the air to her. She grabbed it and put it in her pocket.

 Then they all went down the stairs for the last time, through the quiet kitchen and out into the snowy yard. Moony locked the door and put the key in his pocket. “Good-bye house,” he said quietly. He paused a moment outside the locked door. “I didn’t think I’d feel so sad,” he said.

 Pads put his arms around him and kissed him.”It’s all right,” he said huskily. “A lot happened here. We became a family here.” And Leo and Aurora went up to Moony and hugged him too.

 Tabitha and Crow were waiting in wicker carriers in the van. Indigo had refused to get into her carrier earlier that morning and Moony had said that was all right, she could stay at the house and keep Kreature company and show Heather around when she arrived. They all got in the red van. Moony made them buckle their seat belts and then the van roared to life. The attic window flew open as they were pulling out of the drive and Kreature waved a white handkerchief at them in farewell.

 They drove out the gate and down the lane, leaving the little house behind them. Pads passed round the bag from Honeydukes and let them each pick a treat. He put the cassette with the cheerful French songs in the player on the dashboard. He put his hands behind his head and stretched out his legs and sighed. Moony was behind the wheel, eyes on the road, humming softly along with the cassette.

 Aurora had chosen a chocolate frog. She unwrapped it slowly. The card was Harriet the Hairy. Leo was beside her, looking out the window with a fierce look on his face, clutching his green dragon. He was sitting on his other hand and Aurora knew he wanted to put his thumb in his mouth, but he was too big now. She handed the card to Leo without a word. He looked at her gratefully. She took a bite of her chocolate frog and the delicious sweetness of it spread over her tongue. She stuck her fingers between the bars of the wicker carrier and petted Tabitha until she purred. The van was moving through the white fields lined with bare branched trees, the mountains, smoky and blue off in the distance. Aurora looked out the window and watched the snowy landscape roll by as they drove away, swiftly and surely, into their new lives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you, all who came with me to the end of this journey. It has been so much fun to imagine these characters lives and follow them along to where they wanted to go. I really appreciate all your comments and feedback. I have more stories about them in my head and will probably post more soon. Cheers, Peregrine Bones


End file.
